Gordon Smith (political scientist)

Gordon Smith (born September 16, 1927 in London , † December 2, 2009 ) was a British political scientist.

Life

In 1945 he was drafted into the British Army , he saw the end of the Second World War in Germany and was stationed in Hamburg until 1948 . Here he met his future wife Dorothea, who was one of the founding members of the Jusos when they were re-established after the war.

After returning to London, he studied political science at the London School of Economics , where he received a bachelor's degree in 1952 . He then worked in the HR departments of private companies, then gave social studies classes for vocational students in Melton Mowbray . On the side he wrote a dissertation on the political system of the Federal Republic of Germany, with which he at the London School of Economics in 1964 doctorate was. He lived in Bournemouth and was a lecturer at a technical college in London. With his first book Politics in Western Europe (1972), which he had mostly written on the long train journeys between home and work, he presented a comparison of the political systems of 19 Western European countries. It was through this book that Vincent Wright became aware of him, who made Smith, now 45, a lecturer at the London School of Economics. In 1989 he became professor of political science there.

His research focus was comparative political science , related to the political systems of the states of Western Europe, especially Germany. In doing so, he rejected the opinion of some specialist colleagues that one could explain political processes with general theories; instead, he considered a good knowledge of the history and culture of a state to be essential for understanding political developments.

Works

• Politics in Western Europe. A comparative analysis , 1972 ( ISBN 0-435-83785-0 ); 5th edition 1989 ( ISBN 0-8419-1263-7 )
• Democracy in Western Germany. Parties and politics in the Federal Republic , 1979 ( ISBN 0-435-83790-7 ); 3rd edition 1986 ( ISBN 0-566-05157-5 )
• as editor, with William E. Paterson : The West German model. Perspectives on a stable state , 1981 ( ISBN 0-7146-3180-9 )
• as editor, with Herbert Döring : Party government and political culture in Western Germany , 1982 ( ISBN 0-312-59760-6 )
• as editor: Developments in West German politics , 1989 ( ISBN 0-333-47368-X )
• as editor, with Peter Mair : Understanding party system change in Western Europe , 1990 ( ISBN 0-7146-3381-X )
• as editor: Developments in German politics , 1992 ( ISBN 0-8223-1266-2 )

Gordon Smith was, together with Vincent Wright, editor of the journal West European Politics (from 1978, ISSN  0140-2382 ). In 1992 he and a group of scientists helped found the journal German politics ( ISSN  0964-4008 ).

literature

• Continuity and change in German politics. Beyond the politics of centrality? A Festschrift for Gordon Smith , ed. v. Stephen Padgett and Thomas Poguntke , 2002 ( ISBN 0-7146-8220-9 ); contains a bibliography of Smith's publications

Web links

• Literature by and about Gordon Smith in the catalog of the German National Library
• Obituary article on The Times homepage