Theda Skocpol

About

Theda Skocpol is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. She earned her BA from Michigan State University in 1969 and her PhD from Harvard University in 1975. Skocpol began her academic career in Harvard's Sociology Department before holding faculty positions in Sociology and Political Science at The University of Chicago. She returned to Harvard in 1986, where she has held various professorships, including her current named chair since 1998. Throughout her career, she has served in leadership roles such as President of the Social Science History Association and the American Political Science Association, as well as directing Harvard's Center for American Political Studies and serving as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Skocpol is a highly influential scholar in the social sciences, recognized for her contributions to comparative politics, American politics, historical sociology, U.S. history, and public policy studies. Her research has focused on the significance of the state in revolutions, welfare, and political trust, combining theoretical depth with empirical evidence. She is the author of twelve books and numerous articles, with her first book, "States and Social Revolutions," winning multiple awards. Her work has shaped historical-institutional and comparative research, and since the 1990s, she has concentrated on U.S. politics from historical and comparative perspectives. In addition to her academic…

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Computer Science
• Law
• Virology
• Political economy
• Public administration

Selected publications

• Social Policy in the United States

  2020 · 88 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• RESIST, PERSIST, AND TRANSFORM: THE EMERGENCE AND IMPACT OF GRASSROOTS RESISTANCE GROUPS OPPOSING THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY*

  Mobilization An International Quarterly · 2019-09-01 · 49 citations

  articleSenior author

  The November 2016 election sparked nationwide resistance to the new Trump administration and Republican Congress. Initial studies have focused on public protests and professionally staffed advocacy organizations, but the resistance also includes thousands of volunteer-led grassroots groups. This article uses data from online surveys, fieldwork observations and interviews, and web searches to analyze the development, demographics, and activities of grassroots resistance groups located in multiple…

  PublisherDOI

• The Elite and Popular Roots of Contemporary Republican Extremism

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2020 · 32 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract The unremitting rightward movement of the Republican Party is currently driving asymmetric partisan polarization in the United States. After Democrats won major victories in 2006, 2008, and 2012, Republicans responded by pushing unpopular efforts to cut taxes on the rich, eviscerate labor protections, and slash spending on education, Social Security, and health care. Drawing from recent research, this chapter explains how two separate currents of right-wing extremism—billionaire ultra-f…

  PublisherDOI

• Institutional Capacities, Partisan Divisions, and Federal Tensions in U.S. Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

  RSF The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences · 2022 · 30 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  The COVID-19 pandemic struck during a period of extreme polarization in American politics. Unsurprisingly, responses to it quickly became politicized despite increasingly clear findings from scientific and public health communities about the most effective approaches for limiting its spread. We ask how the politicization affected pandemic response at the state level. We document and explain several kinds of state-level actions, beginning with 2020 variations in collecting and publishing COVID-re…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Limits of the New Deal System and the Roots of Contemporary Welfare Dilemmas

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2020-12-08 · 10 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jack Snyder

  Columbia University

  54 shared

• Atul Kohli

  48 shared

• Michael W. Doyle

  48 shared

• Kenneth A. Oye

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  47 shared

• Nancy Bermeo

  47 shared

• John Lewis Gaddis

  47 shared

• Richard Challener

  47 shared

• Henry Bienen

  47 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Political Science

  Harvard University

  1978

• B.A., Political Science

  University of California, Berkeley

  1973

Awards & honors

• Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science (2007)

Similar researchers at Harvard University

• Robert J. Sampsonh-113
• Michèle Lamonth-57
• Frank Dobbinh-52