Harry Eckstein Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Harry Eckstein (1924–1999) was born in Schotten, Germany. Eckstein, who was Jewish, was brought to the United States when he was twelve as part of the exodus from Nazi Germany that became known as the One Thousand Children. This was a program administered by the U.S. government that brought intellectually gifted children to the United States. While his sister, Ilsa, eventually escaped from Germany, the rest of his family perished in the Holocaust.

Eckstein spent his adolescent years in Columbus, Ohio. He then attended Harvard University, where he received his bachelor’s degree (1948, summa cum laude), master’s degree (1950), and doctorate (1953) in political science.

He began his teaching career at Harvard University as an instructor and then as an assistant professor (1954–1958). Eckstein then moved to Princeton (1959–1980), where he became the IBM Professor of International Studies in 1969. In 1980, he moved to the University of California, Irvine, where he taught until his death in 1999.

His dissertation was published as The English Health Service (1958). He followed this with his study of the British Medical Association, which was published as Pressure Group Politics (1958). In A Theory of Stable Democracy (1961), Eckstein presented what he called “congruence theory,” which states that governments perform well to the extent that their authority patterns are congruent with the authority patterns of other units of society. Later works include Internal War (1964), Division and Cohesion in Democracy (1966), Patterns of Authority (1975), Regarding Politics (1992), and Can Democracy Take Root in Post-Soviet Russia? (1998). Eckstein’s contributions to the field of political science include his work on interest groups, his work on civil strife, and his use of case studies to explain comparative politics.

Eckstein was a political scientist who argued that the authority patterns in a society were a critical variable in determining whether democracy would succeed in a nation-state.

Bibliography:

Eckstein, Harry. “Congruence Theory Explained.” In Can Democracy Take Root in Post-Soviet Russia? edited by Harry Eckstein, Frederic J. Fleron, Erik P. Hoffmann, and William M. Reisinger. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998.
Division and Cohesion in Democracy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1966.
The English Health Service. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958.
Internal War. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1964.
Patterns of Authority. New York: John Wiley, 1975.
Pressure Group Politics. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1958.
Regarding Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
A Theory of Stable Democracy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1961.
Eckstein, Harry, Frederic J. Fleron, Erik P. Hoffmann, and William M. Reisinger, eds. Can Democracy Take Root in Post-Soviet Russia? Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998.