Barrington Moore Jr. | |
---|---|
Born | Washington D.C., U.S. | May 12, 1913
Died | October 16, 2005 Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. | (aged 92)
Occupation | Political sociologist |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Williams College Yale University |
Doctoral advisor | Albert Galloway Keller |
Academic work | |
Doctoral students | Charles Tilly, Theda Skocpol, John Mollenkopf, Jon Wiener |
Barrington Moore Jr. (12 May 1913 – 16 October 2005)[1] was an American political sociologist, and the son of forester Barrington Moore.
He is well-known for his Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (1966), a comparative study of modernization in Britain, France, the United States, China, Japan, Russia, Germany, and India.[2] The book puts forth a neo-Marxist argument that class structures and class alliances at particular points in time can account for the kinds of social revolutions that occurred and did not occur in those countries, putting some countries on a path to democracy, whereas others were put on a path to authoritarianism or communism.[3][4] He famously argued, "no bourgeois, no democracy," which emphasized the important role played by a large middle-class in accomplishing democratization and ensuring democratic stability.[5]