Barrington Moore Jr.

This article is about the sociologist. For the forester (his father), see Barrington Moore, Sr.
Barrington Moore Jr.
Born(1913-05-12)May 12, 1913
Washington D.C., U.S.
DiedOctober 16, 2005(2005-10-16) (aged 92)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
OccupationPolitical sociologist
Academic background
Alma materWilliams College
Yale University
Doctoral advisorAlbert Galloway Keller
Academic work
Doctoral studentsCharles 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]

  1. ^ Dennis Smith, "Obituary: Barrington Moore — Author of a daring sociological classic", The Independent, 17 November 2005, 59.
  2. ^ Munck, Gerardo L.; Snyder, Richard (2007). Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 86–87. ISBN 978-0-8018-8464-1.
  3. ^ Skocpol, Theda (1973). "A Critical Review of Barrington Moore's Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy". Politics & Society. 4 (1): 1–34. doi:10.1177/003232927300400101. ISSN 0032-3292. S2CID 143910152.
  4. ^ Wiener, Jonathan M. (1975). "The Barrington Moore Thesis and Its Critics". Theory and Society. 2 (3): 301–330. doi:10.1007/BF00212740. ISSN 0304-2421. JSTOR 656776. S2CID 144204537.
  5. ^ "The Canon: The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World". Times Higher Education (THE). 2009-11-12. Retrieved 2020-02-29.