Sidney Verba

Sidney Verba ( born May 26, 1932 in New York, NY, USA) is an American political scientist. He was until 2007 the Carl H. Pforzheimer - professorship at Harvard University held.

Verba is the author and co-author of several books on American and comparative politics. In 1994 he was elected president of the American Political Science Association (APSA ). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Art, and the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences. He was chairman of the Policy Committee in Sociology Research Council and the Committee for International Conflicts. His current research interests include the relationship between political and social inequality, political participation of the masses and political ideologies of the masses and elites. Verba was also from 1984 to 2007 director of the Harvard University Library.

Projects

Sidney Verba directs at Harvard University in collaboration with Google, Inc., the "Google Book Search Library Project ." Within this framework, the creation of a digital database of the five largest libraries in the United States and Britain is made possible. On this project includes, among others, the University of Michigan, Stanford University, New York Public Library and University of Oxford. It is planned to feed more than 15 million books in the database. Although there are several legal actions for copyright infringement, the project is on track for a long time.

" Civic Culture "

One of the most important works of Sidney Verba is the book " Civic Culture ", which he published in 1963, together with Gabriel Almond. During the study, more than 5,000 people were surveyed in the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy and Mexico to problems of democracy and political participation. Because at that time, especially political institutions and elites were the focus of political science observation and following the onset time behaviourism research, Verba and Almond directed their attention primarily on individual behavior and its determining factors. They entered the contrary to their opinion too simplistic rational choice theory, which attempts to explain the behavior of people solely on utility-maximizing considerations.

This model, which assumes two ideal-typical kinds of citizens, on the one hand the active citizen who made ​​possible by special political commitment and careful information gathering and evaluation of a successful democracy, on the other hand the passive citizens, the ill-informed non-voters, which causes a weak democracy, the authors criticize. They put him in opposition to the concept of " civic culture ".

In order to compare the situation in the countries under study, three types were distinguished from political culture:

  • The parochial culture in which citizens are only interested in what happens in their vicinity
  • The subjects of culture in which the citizens obey the government, so long does the performance of the political system
  • The culture of participation in which citizen participation is desired and also takes place.

The ideal Almond and Verba see the above-mentioned " civic culture ", which is a mixture of these three types. The Federal Republic has been more often considered as subjects of culture, Mexico as parochial. The United States and Britain are therefore the best examples of well- developed political cultures. In later works, however, verbs also addressed critically the negative impact of social inequality on the political system of the United States.

"The civic culture is a mixed political culture. In it many individuals are active in politics, but there are so many who take the more passive role of subject. " ( Civic Culture (1971 ), S 474)

Awards

Verba won the Kammerer Award of the APSA for the best book on American politics. His book " The changing American voter " won the Woodrow Wilson Award for the best book in political science. In 1993, he won the James Madison Award of the APSA, and 2002 of Johan Skytte Prize he was awarded.

Works

  • Small Groups and Political Behavior. 1961
  • The Civic Culture. 1963
  • Caste, Race and Politics. 1969
  • Vietnam and the Silent Majority. 1970
  • Participation in America. 1972
  • The Changing American Voter. 1976
  • Injury to Insult. 1979
  • Participation and Political Equality. 1979
  • Equality in America. 1985
  • Elites and the Idea of Equality. 1989
  • Designing Social Inquiry. 1994
  • Voice and Equality. 1995
  • The Private Roots of Public Action. 2001
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