Nelson W. Polsby
1934 - 2007
Professor Polsby’s loss is irreparable – for the department, the university, and the discipline. He was an intellectual leader and an icon in the study of American Politics. His research and insights inspired a generation of political scientists. Polsby will be missed not only for his wide-ranging scholarship, his deep and profound knowledge of American Politics but also for his dry wit and humor that enlivened many a department meeting. The afternoon tea that Polsby hosted regularly at the Institute of Governmental Studies is legendary. The “tea” attracted graduate students and faculty from all over and created an unparalleled intellectual community.
Pradeep Chhibber
In a career spanning more than four decades, Nelson W. Polsby reshaped our understanding of the American political system. From his early work on community power to his most recent book on the congressional reforms of the 1970s and the rise of Newt Gingrich, Nelson made unique and immense contributions to the study of American politics. His books included How Congress Evolves (2004), Presidential Elections (with Aaron Wildavsky, 11th ed., 2004), Congress and the Presidency (4th ed., 1986), Political Innovation in America (1984), Consequences of Party Reform (1983), Community Power and Political Theory (2nd ed., 1980), Political Promises (1974), British Government and its Discontents (with Geoffrey Smith, 1981), and New Federalist Papers (with Alan Brinkley and Kathleen Sullivan, 1997). Nelson’s article on the “Institutionalization of the U.S. House of Representatives” (1968) was recently listed as one of the twenty most influential articles published in the American Political Science Review over the past 60 years.
Beyond his many scholarly contributions, Nelson has made crucial contributions to the broader discipline of political science and to the Berkeley community. He has served as managing editor of the American Political Science Review, editor of the Annual Review of Political Science, and political science editor of The International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. From 1988-99, Nelson was Director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at Berkeley. Nelson made IGS an inviting home away from home for visiting scholars from all over the United States and abroad. The daily 3:00 tea that Nelson created at IGS has long brought these visitors together with Berkeley’s graduate students and faculty, offsetting the typically solitary aspects of academia.
Nelson’s many honors include two Guggenheim Fellowships, two fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences twice, a Brookings Fellowship. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Academy of Public Administration. He holds the Wilbur Cross Medal and the Yale Medal of Yale University, an Honorary Litt.D. from the University of Liverpool, an M.A. from Oxford University, and a Docteur Honoris Causa from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan.
Eric Schickler