Paul Pierson
Encyclopedia
Paul Pierson is a professor of political science
and holder of the Avice Saint Chair of Public Policy 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.
Pierson is a native of Eugene, Oregon
, where both of his parents taught at the University of Oregon
. He graduated with a B.A.
in political science
from Oberlin College
in 1981, and then attended graduate school
at Yale University
, completing an M.A.
and M.Phil in 1986 and a PhD
degree in political science
in 1989.
Pierson taught at Harvard University
from 1989 to 2004, when he moved to the University of California, Berkeley
. He was a visiting professor at the European University Institute
in 1999.
Pierson's first book, Dismantling the Welfare State?, was a revision of his doctoral dissertation and won the American Political Science Association
's Kammerer Prize for the best work on American national politics
published in 1994. His journal
article “Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics” won the Heinz Eulau Award for the best article published in the American Political Science Review
in 2000. His most recent book is Winner-Take-All Politics
.
Pierson was president of the Politics and History Section of the American Political Science Association
for 2003-04.
Pierson is married to Tracey Goldberg, a landscape architect. They live in Berkeley, CA with their two children.
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
and holder of the Avice Saint Chair of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. From 2007-2010 he served at UC Berkeley as Chair of the Department of Political Science. He is noted for his research on comparative
Comparative politics
Comparative politics is a subfield of political science, characterized by an empirical approach based on the comparative method. Arend Lijphart argues that comparative politics does not have a substantive focus in itself, but rather a methodological one: it focuses on "the how but does not specify...
public policy
Public policy
Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...
and political economy
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
, the welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
, and American political development.
Pierson is a native of Eugene, Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
, where both of his parents taught at the University of Oregon
University of Oregon
-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...
. He graduated with a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
from Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
in 1981, and then attended graduate school
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, completing an M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
and M.Phil in 1986 and a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
degree in political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
in 1989.
Pierson taught at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
from 1989 to 2004, when he moved to the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. He was a visiting professor at the European University Institute
European University Institute
The European University Institute ' in Florence is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral teaching and research institute established by European Union member states to contribute to cultural and scientific development in the social sciences, in a European perspective...
in 1999.
Pierson's first book, Dismantling the Welfare State?, was a revision of his doctoral dissertation and won the American Political Science Association
American Political Science Association
The American Political Science Association is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903, it publishes three academic journals...
's Kammerer Prize for the best work on American national politics
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
published in 1994. His journal
Academic journal
An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
article “Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics” won the Heinz Eulau Award for the best article published in the American Political Science Review
American Political Science Review
The American Political Science Review is the flagship publication of the American Political Science Association and is the most prestigious journal in political science according to the ISI 2004 Journal Citation Report...
in 2000. His most recent book is Winner-Take-All Politics
Winner-Take-All Politics (book)
Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class is a book by political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson...
.
Pierson was president of the Politics and History Section of the American Political Science Association
American Political Science Association
The American Political Science Association is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903, it publishes three academic journals...
for 2003-04.
Pierson is married to Tracey Goldberg, a landscape architect. They live in Berkeley, CA with their two children.
Selected publications
- The Transformation of American Politics: Activist Government and the Rise of Conservatism. 2007. Princeton University PressPrinceton University Press-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
. (edited with Theda SkocpolTheda SkocpolTheda Skocpol is an American sociologist and political scientist at Harvard University. She served from 2005 to 2007 as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She is influential in sociology as an advocate of the historical-institutional and comparative approaches, and well-known in...
). - Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy. 2005. Yale University PressYale University PressYale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....
. (with Jacob HackerJacob HackerJacob Stewart Hacker is the Director of the and Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University and has written works on social policy, health care reform, and economic insecurity in the United States...
). - Politics in Time: History, Institutions, and Social Analysis. 2004. Princeton University PressPrinceton University Press-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
. - "Imposing Losses in Pension Policy." 1993. In Do Institutions Matter? Government Capabilities in the United States and Abroad. Brookings Institute Press. eds. R. Kent WeaverR. Kent WeaverKent Weaver is a professor at Georgetown University. His focus is on a variety of fields in U.S. political science, including comparative social policy, comparative political institutions, and the politics of expertise. Weaver joined the Georgetown Public Policy Institute in the fall of 2002,...
, and Bert A. Rockman. (written with R. Kent WeaverR. Kent WeaverKent Weaver is a professor at Georgetown University. His focus is on a variety of fields in U.S. political science, including comparative social policy, comparative political institutions, and the politics of expertise. Weaver joined the Georgetown Public Policy Institute in the fall of 2002,...
). - "Historical Institutionalism in Contemporary Political Science." In Political Science: The State of the Discipline, eds. I. KatznelsonIra KatznelsonIra Katznelson is a leading American political scientist and historian, noted for his influential research on the liberal state, inequality, social knowledge, and institutions, primarily focused on the United States....
and H. Milner. W.W. Norton. (written with Theda SkocpolTheda SkocpolTheda Skocpol is an American sociologist and political scientist at Harvard University. She served from 2005 to 2007 as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She is influential in sociology as an advocate of the historical-institutional and comparative approaches, and well-known in...
). - The New Politics of the Welfare State. 2001. Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
. (editor). - "Path Dependence, Increasing Returns, and the Study of Politics." 2000. American Political Science ReviewAmerican Political Science ReviewThe American Political Science Review is the flagship publication of the American Political Science Association and is the most prestigious journal in political science according to the ISI 2004 Journal Citation Report...
94(2): 251-267. - "Not Just What, but When: Timing and Sequence in Political Processes." 2000. Studies in American Political DevelopmentStudies in American Political DevelopmentStudies in American Political Development is a political science journal founded in 1986 and presently published by Cambridge University Press....
14(1): 73-93. - European Social Policy: Between Fragmentation and Integration. 1995. Brookings InstitutionBrookings InstitutionThe Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...
Press. (edited with Stephan Leibfried). - Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher and the Politics of Retrenchment. 1994. Cambridge University PressCambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
.