Kathleen Thelen

Last updated
Kathleen Thelen
Born1956
Nationality American
Alma mater
Scientific career
Fields Political science
Institutions

Kathleen Thelen is an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics. She is the Ford Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a permanent external member of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG), and a faculty associate at the Center for European Studies (CES) at Harvard University.

Contents

She is known for her research on political-economic institutions, as well as her frameworks for understanding institutional stability and change. [1] She is influential in the field of historical institutionalism. [2]

Education

She received her B.A. from the University of Kansas. [3] During her time at the University of Kansas, she spent a year studying abroad in Munich, Germany; her experience in Germany led her to switch her major from English to Political Science. [4] She was awarded an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. [3] During her time at U.C. Berkeley, she was influenced by faculty members John Zsyman, Gregory Luebbert, Ernst Haas, Reinhard Bendix, and Harold Wilensky, as well as fellow graduate students Jonas Pontusson, Sven Steinmo, Robin Gaster, and Tony Daley. [2] She did her PhD thesis on labor relations in Germany. [2]

Career

She is a leading authority on the origins and evolution of political-economic institutions in the rich democracies. She is among the most highly cited political scientists. [2]

Thelen completed and published her first book, “Union of Parts”, as an assistant professor at Princeton University in 1991. Through an analysis of labor relations in Germany between the 1970s and 1980s, she identified the interaction of centralized bargaining and German work councils as the institutional basis for peaceful, negotiated adjustment in the midst of radical economic and political change.

After moving to Northwestern University in 1994, Thelen wrote a sole-authored article, “Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Politics,” for the Annual Review of Political Science. The article instantly became a classic, and to date scholars have referenced it more than 6,000 times. [5]

In “How Institutions Evolve” (2004), Thelen examines variations in the nineteenth century settlements between employers and skill-intensive workers, artisans, and early trade unions. She finds that the effects of these settlements were incremental, and can only be understood by making sense of specific types of long-run gradual change. For example, she discovered that German Handicraft Protection Law of 1897, originally designed to shore up support among a reactionary artisanal class, was a historical cause of contemporary Germany’s vocational training system. The book co-received the American Political Science Association’s Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for the best book published in 2004 on government, politics, or international affairs. [6]

Thelen left Northwestern University for MIT in 2009. In 2014, she published her third major substantive book, “Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity.” The book examines contemporary changes in labor market institutions in the United States, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. While confirming a broad, shared, liberalizing trend, Thelen finds that there are in fact distinct varieties of liberalization associated with very different distributive outcomes. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, her study reveals that the successful defense of the institutions traditionally associated with coordinated capitalism has often been a recipe for increased inequality due to declining coverage and dualization. Conversely, she argues that some forms of labor market liberalization are perfectly compatible with continued high levels of social solidarity and indeed may be necessary to sustain it. The book received prizes from section in both the American Political Science Association (APSA) and the American Sociological Association (ASA).

Thelen has proposed a framework for understanding institutional change, which encompasses: [1] [7]

Recognition

She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015 and to the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 2009. She has been awarded honorary degrees at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2013), the London School of Economics (2017), the European University Institute in Florence (2018) and, most recently, the University of Copenhagen (2018 [8] ).

Thelen was also elected to serve as President of the American Political Science Association (APSA) from 2017 to 2018.

Works

Related Research Articles

Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political institutions, political thought and behavior, and associated constitutions and laws.

New institutionalism is an approach to the study of institutions that focuses on the constraining and enabling effects of formal and informal rules on the behavior of individuals and groups. New institutionalism traditionally encompasses three major strands: sociological institutionalism, rational choice institutionalism, and historical institutionalism. New institutionalism originated in work by sociologist John Meyer published in 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comparative politics</span> Field in political science

Comparative politics is a field in political science characterized either by the use of the comparative method or other empirical methods to explore politics both within and between countries. Substantively, this can include questions relating to political institutions, political behavior, conflict, and the causes and consequences of economic development. When applied to specific fields of study, comparative politics may be referred to by other names, such as comparative government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barrington Moore Jr.</span> American sociologist (1913–2005)

Barrington Moore Jr. was an American political sociologist, and the son of forester Barrington Moore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theda Skocpol</span> American sociologist and political scientist (born 1947)

Theda Skocpol is an American sociologist and political scientist, who is currently the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. She is a highly influential figure in both sociology and political science. She is best known as an advocate of the historical-institutional and comparative approaches, as well as her "state autonomy theory". She has written widely for both popular and academic audiences. She has been President of the American Political Science Association and the Social Science History Association.

<i>States and Social Revolutions</i> 1979 book by Theda Skocpol

States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China is a 1979 book by Theda Skocpol, published by Cambridge University Press, that examines the causes of social revolutions.

Historical institutionalism (HI) is a new institutionalist social science approach that emphasizes how timing, sequences and path dependence affect institutions, and shape social, political, economic behavior and change. Unlike functionalist theories and some rational choice approaches, historical institutionalism tends to emphasize that many outcomes are possible, small events and flukes can have large consequences, actions are hard to reverse once they take place, and that outcomes may be inefficient. A critical juncture may set in motion events that are hard to reverse, because of issues related to path dependency. Historical institutionalists tend to focus on history to understand why specific events happen.

Karen Orren is an American political scientist, noted for her research on American political institutions and social movements, analyzed in historical perspective, and for helping to stimulate the study of American political development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ira Katznelson</span> American political scientist and historian

Ira I. Katznelson is an American political scientist and historian, noted for his research on the liberal state, inequality, social knowledge, and institutions, primarily focused on the United States. His work has been characterized as an "interrogation of political liberalism in the United States and Europe—asking for definition of its many forms, their origins, their strengths and weaknesses, and what kinds there can be".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Pierson</span> American political scientist

Paul Pierson is an American professor of political science specializing in comparative politics and holder of the John Gross Endowed Chair of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. From 2007-2010 he served at UC Berkeley as Chair of the Department of Political Science. He is noted for his research on comparative public policy and political economy, the welfare state, and American political development. His works on the welfare state and historical institutionalism have been characterized as influential.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comparative historical research</span> Method in the social sciences

Comparative historical research is a method of social science that examines historical events in order to create explanations that are valid beyond a particular time and place, either by direct comparison to other historical events, theory building, or reference to the present day. Generally, it involves comparisons of social processes across times and places. It overlaps with historical sociology. While the disciplines of history and sociology have always been connected, they have connected in different ways at different times. This form of research may use any of several theoretical orientations. It is distinguished by the types of questions it asks, not the theoretical framework it employs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vivien A. Schmidt</span> American academic

Vivien A. Schmidt is an American academic of political science and international relations. At Boston University, she is the Jean Monnet Chair of European Integration Professor of International Relations in the Pardee School of Global Studies, and Professor of Political Science. She is known for her work on political economy, policy analysis, democratic theory, and new institutionalism. She is a 2018 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and has been named a Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor.

David Collier is an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics. He is Chancellor's Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He works in the fields of comparative politics, Latin American politics, and methodology. His father was the anthropologist Donald Collier.

<i>Varieties of Capitalism</i> Book by David Soskice and Peter A. Hall

Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage is a 2001 book on economics, political economy, and comparative politics edited by political economists Peter A. Hall and David Soskice. The book established an influential debate among political economists about ways to categorize, qualify and analyze different ways in which economies are organized.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aili M. Tripp</span> American political scientist

Aili Mari Tripp is a Finnish and American political scientist, currently the Wangari Maathai Professor of Political Science and Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sven Steinmo</span>

Sven H. Steinmo is a professor of political science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He obtained his BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his MA, MPH, and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. His primary teaching and research interests are in the realm of institutional theory, comparative public policy, and comparative historical analysis. Steinmo has also researched how political and economic institutions grew and currently operate within various developed democracies, such as Sweden and Japan, while utilizing the perspectives found in evolutionary theory. He is widely recognized for his work in institutional theory, having been one of the founders of the subfield of historical institutionalism. His book with Kathleen Thelen, Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism and Comparative Analysis (1992), is academically notable, and is a significant contribution within that domain of research.

Michelle Dion is a political scientist, currently a professor in the department of political science and the Senator William McMaster Chair in Gender and Methodology at McMaster University, as well as the founding director of McMaster University's Centre for Research in Empirical Social Sciences. Dion studies the political economy of Latin America, the history of social welfare policies, political methodology, and comparative political behaviour with a focus on attitudes, gender, and sexuality in politics.

Denise Walsh is an American political scientist, currently a professor of political science and women, gender and sexuality at the University of Virginia. She studies the relationship between women's rights and political inclusion and level of democracy, as well as women's advancement during periods of democratization.

Critical juncture theory focuses on critical junctures, i.e., large, rapid, discontinuous changes, and the long-term causal effect or historical legacy of these changes. Critical junctures are turning points that alter the course of evolution of some entity. Critical juncture theory seeks to explain both (1) the historical origin and maintenance of social order, and (2) the occurrence of social change through sudden, big leaps.

Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World (1966) is a book by Barrington Moore Jr.

References

  1. 1 2 Capoccia, Giovanni (2016). "When Do Institutions "Bite"? Historical Institutionalism and the Politics of Institutional Change". Comparative Political Studies. 49 (8): 1095–1127. doi:10.1177/0010414015626449. ISSN   0010-4140. S2CID   146602221.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Mahoney, James (2017). "Shift Happens: The Historical Institutionalism of Kathleen Thelen". PS: Political Science & Politics. 50 (4): 1115–1119. doi: 10.1017/S1049096517001494 . ISSN   1049-0965.
  3. 1 2 "Kathleen Thelen's CV" (PDF). Retrieved 2019-02-16.[ permanent dead link ]
  4. ↑ "How institutions form and change over time | Interview with Dr. Kathleen Thelen". academicinfluence.com. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  5. ↑ "Google Scholar" . Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  6. ↑ James Mahoney. (2017). “Shift Happens: The Historical Institutionalism of Kathleen Thelen“.
  7. ↑ Waylen, Georgina (2017-12-19). "Gendering Institutional Change". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.237. ISBN   978-0-19-022863-7.
  8. ↑ Fink-Jensen, Jens (June 9, 2016). "Honorary doctorates". research.ku.dk. Archived from the original on July 20, 2017. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.