Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T02:46:06.707Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

SEYMOUR MARTIN LIPSET: MODERNIZZAZIONE, STRUTTURA SOCIALE E CULTURA POLITICA COME FATTORI DELLO SVILUPPO DEMOCRATICO

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2018

Ursula Hoffmann-Lange

Introduzione

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Seymour Martin Lipset è indubbiamente uno dei maggiori scienziati sociali del ventesimo secolo, «che ha plasmato, forse più di ogni altro scienziato sociale contemporaneo, lo studio delle condizioni, dei valori e delle istituzioni della democrazia negli Stati Uniti e in tutto il mondo (Marks 1995, 765). I suoi contributi sia alla scienza politica che alla sociologia sono straordinari. È l'unico ad essere stato sia Presidente dell'American Political Science Association (1979-80), sia dell'American Sociological Association (1992-3). È stato anche Presidente o vice Presidente di molte altre associazioni professionali americane e internazionali, come la International Society of Political Psychology, la World Association for Public Opinion Research, e la Society for Comparative Research. Le sue attività in queste associazioni testimoniano l'ampio spettro degli interessi accademici di Lipset, che vanno dalla politica comparata alla stratificazione sociale. Lipset ha anche ricevuto molti riconoscimenti, come fellowships da prestigiose istituzioni accademiche (ad es. il Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences di Stanford), premi da associazioni professionali, e non meno di sette Ph. D. onorari.

Summary

Summary

Seymour Martin Lipset is one of the most productive and innovative social scientists of the 20th century. Some of his many books and articles have become classic texts, in particular his seminal book Political Man (1960). Despite the broad scope of his work, Lipset's writings have one single focus, i.e. the study of democracy. He has studied the social and political factors conducive to democratization and the stability of democracy, taking into account social structural conditions, the role of intermediary organizations, political culture, electoral behavior and political leadership. His work is theoretical as well as empirical, and his perspective has always been a comparative one, referring to practically all major world regions. Lipset was the first to put forward the idea that socioeconomic development is an important precondition for democratic development and that economic success may in turn contribute to legitimize newly democratized regimes. He has also emphasized the central importance of a competitive party system for sustaining (intra-organizational) democracy. As an American, Lipset has finally always been intrigued by the exceptional character of American democracy which he traces back to a historically unique combination of favorable circumstances at the time of its foundation, i.e. of social structural conditions (high levels of social mobility), a specific value system (individualism, equality of opportunities, religiosity) and the availability of political leaders intent on creating a republic based on popular sovereignty that was without precedent at the time.

Type
Saggi
Information
Italian Political Science Review / Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , December 2003 , pp. 451 - 482
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 by Società editrice il Mulino, Bologna 

References

Riferimenti bibliografici

Almond, G. e Verba, S. (1963), The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations, Princeton, Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Barnes, S.H. e Kaase, M. et al (1979), Political Action. Mass Participation in Five Western Democracies, Beverly Hills, Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Bendix, R. e Lipset, S.M. (1966), The Field of Political Sociology, in Coser, L.A. (a cura di), Political Sociology, New York, Harper & Row, pp. 9–47.Google Scholar
Berelson, B., Lazarsfeld, P.F. e McPhee, W.N. (1954), Voting, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Daalder, H. (a cura di) (1997), Comparative European Politics. The Story of a Profession, London, Pinter.Google Scholar
Dahl, R.A. (1956), A Preface to Democratic Theory, Chicago, University of Chicago Press; trad. it. Prefazione alla teoria democratica, Milano, Comunità, 1994.Google Scholar
Devitt, J. (2001), Iserp to Celebrate Work of Columbia Sociologist Paul F. Lazarsfeld, in «Columbia News», www.columbia.edu/cu/news/01/09/lazarsfeld.htmlGoogle Scholar
Diamond, L. (1992), Economic Development and Democracy Revisited, in «American Behavioral Scientist», 35, pp. 450–499.Google Scholar
Diggins, J.P. (1998), Lipset on American Exceptionalism. Extensions, Special Orders 98, www.ou.edu/special/albertctr/extensions/sp98/diggins.htmlGoogle Scholar
Ellis, J. (2002), Founding Brothers. The Revolutionary Generation, New York, Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Goldfield, M. (1998), Lip set's Union Democracy After 40 Years. extensions, Special Orders 98, www.ou.edu/special/albertctr/extensions/sp98/goldfield.htmlGoogle Scholar
Huntington, S.P. (1991), The Third Wave. Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, Norman, University of Oklahoma Press; trad. it. La terza ondata: i processi di democratizazione alla fine del 20. secolo, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1995.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R. (1997), Modernization and Postmodernization, Princeton; trad. it. La società postmoderna, Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1998.Google Scholar
Lazarsfeld, P.F., Berelson, B. e Gaudet, H. (1944), The People's Choice, New York, Duell, Sloan & Pearce.Google Scholar
Lepsius, M.R. (1969), Demokratie in Deutschland als historisch-soziologisches Problem, in Adorno, T.W. (a cura di), Spätkapitalismus oder Industriegesellschaft, Stuttgart, Enke, pp. 197–213.Google Scholar
Lipset, S.E. (1960), Political Man, London, Heineman; trad. it. L'uomo e la politica, basi sociali della politica, Milano, Comunità, 1963.Google Scholar
Lipset, S.E. (1979), The First New Nation. The United States in Historical and Comparative Perspective, New York, Norton.Google Scholar
Lipset, S.E. (1990), Continental Divide. The Values and Institutions of the United States and Canada, New York, Routledge.Google Scholar
Lipset, S.E. (1994), The Social Requisites of Democracy Revisited, in «American Sociological Review», vol. 59, pp. 1–22.Google Scholar
Lipset, S.E. (1996), American Exceptionalism. A Double-Edged Sword, New York, Norton.Google Scholar
Lipset, S.E. (1998), Excerpts from Three Lectures on Democracy, The 1997 Julian J. Rothbaum Distinguished Lecture in «Representative Government», Extensions, Special Orders 98. www.ou.edu/special/albertctr/extensions/sp98/lipset.htmlGoogle Scholar
Lipset, S.E. (2000), Conditions for Democracy, in H.-D. Klingemann e F. Neidhardt (a cura di), Zur Zukunft der Demokratie, Wzb-Jahrbuch 2000, Berlin, edition sigma, pp. 393–410.Google Scholar
Lipset, S.E. (2001), The Decline of Class Ideologies. The End of Political Exceptionalism?, in Clark, T.N. e Lipset, S.E. (a cura di), The Breakdown of Class Poltics. A Debate on Post-Industrial Stratification, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, pp. 249–272.Google Scholar
Lipset, S.E. e Rokkan, S. (1967), Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments: An Introduction, in Lipset, S.M. e Rokkan, S. (a cura di), Party Systems and Voter Alignments. Cross-National Perspectives, New York, The Free Press.Google Scholar
Lipset, S.E., Trow, M. e Coleman, J. (1956), Union Democracy, Garden City, N.J., Doubleday; trad. it. Democrazia sindacale, Milano, Etas, 1972.Google Scholar
Marks, G. (1995), Lipset, Seymour Martin, in Lipset, S.M. (a cura di), The Encyclopedia of Democracy, vol. III, London, Routledge, pp. 765–7.Google Scholar
Marks, G. e Diamond, L. (1992), Seymour Martin Lipset and the Study of Democracy, in «Seymour Martin Lipset and the Study of Democracy», vol. 35, nn. 4/5, pp. 352–262.Google Scholar
Putnam, R.D. (1993), Making Democracy Work, Princeton, Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lipset, S.E. (2000), Bowling Alone. The Collapse and Revival of American Community, New York, Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Schwartz, M.A. (1998), Democracy and Agrarian Socialism Extensions, Special Orders 98, www.ou.edu/special/albertctr/extensions/sp98/schwartz.htmlGoogle Scholar
Vanhanen, T. (1997), Prospects of Democracy, London, Routledge.Google Scholar