List of political scientists
This is a list of notable political scientists. See the list of political theorists for those who study political theory. See also political science.
A
- Robert Abelson - Yale University psychologist and political scientist with special interests in statistics and logic
- Henry J. Abraham - American scholar on the judiciary and constitutional law and James Hart Professor of Government Emeritus at the University of Virginia
- Alan Abramowitz – expert in American politics, political parties, ideological realignment, elections, and voting behavior; professor at Emory University
- Paul R. Abramson - American political scientist known for his research and writing on American, European, and Israeli elections and professor of political science at Michigan State University
- As'ad AbuKhalil - Lebanese-American professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus.
- Ibrahim Abu-Lughod
- Brooke Ackerly - expert on grounded normative theory, feminist theory, feminist international relations, and scholar activism, professor at Vanderbilt University
- Martha Ackelsberg - American political scientist and women's studies scholar at Smith College
- David Adamany – public law specialist and President of Temple University
- Charles R. Adrian - American professor of political science who specialized in municipal politics
- Vinod Aggarwal - American political scientist specializing in international political economy
- Robert Agranoff - American political scientist and public administration scholar and author
- Arun Agrawal - political scientist in the School of Natural Resources & Environment at the University of Michigan
- Janet Ajzenstat - Canadian political historian at McMaster University
- Adeolu Akande - professor of Political Science at the Igbinedion University
- Bolaji Akinyemi - Nigerian professor of political science
- Bethany Albertson - American political psychologist
- Daniel P. Aldrich - American political scientist, public policy and Asian studies scholar at Northeastern University
- John Aldrich – political parties expert at Duke University, author of Why Parties?
- John R. Alford - political science professor at Rice University who researches genopolitics
- Hayward Alker - professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California, MIT and Yale who specialized in research methods, core international relations theory, international politics, and security
- Danielle Allen - American classicist and political scientist
- Graham Allison – early proponent of the bureaucratic politics model, author of Essence of Decision, national security specialist, former Dean of Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Gabriel A. Almond – originator of the culturist movement in comparative politics
- Gar Alperovitz – political economist
- Karen Alter - American academic who conducts interdisciplinary work on international law's influence in international and domestic politics
- Scott Althaus - professor of political science and communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the director of the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research at the University
- Micah Altman - American social scientist who conducts research in social science informatics
- R. Michael Alvarez - professor of political science at California Institute of Technology and co-director of the Voting Technology Project
- Tabata Amaral - Brazilian political scientist and federal deputy for São Paulo
- Ambedkar – jurist, economist and Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution of India
- Thomas Ambrosio - professor of political science in the Criminal Justice and Political Science Department at North Dakota State University
- Kristi Andersen - American political scientist at Syracuse University who studies party realignment
- Walter K. Andersen - American academic known for his studies of the Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
- Benedict Anderson - Chinese-born Irish political scientist and historian in the US, author of Imagined Communities
- Lisa Anderson - American political scientist and the former President of the American University in Cairo
- Walter Truett Anderson - American political scientist, social psychologist, and author of non-fiction books and articles
- William Anderson – specialist in public administration
- Mina Andreeva - Bulgarian political scientist and chief spokesperson for the European Commission
- Marimba Ani - anthropologist and African Studies scholar best known for her work Yurugu
- Stephen Ansolabehere - professor of government at Harvard University
- William Antholis - Greek-American political scientist, director and CEO of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia
- David Apter - American political scientist and sociologist who was Henry J. Heinz Professor of Comparative Political and Social Development and Senior Research Scientist at Yale University
- Asher Arian - American and Israeli political scientist who was an expert on Politics of Israel and election studies
- Hadley Arkes - American political scientist and the Edward N. Ney Professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions emeritus at Amherst College
- John Alexander Armstrong - Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Larry Arnhart - Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Northern Illinois University
- Richard Ashcraft - American political theorist and Professor of Political Science at UCLA
- Herb Asher - professor emeritus of political science at Ohio State University
- Richard K. Ashley - postmodernist scholar of international relations
- Ronald Asmus - diplomat and political analyst and then senior think tank policy analyst
- Scott Atran - American-French political and cultural anthropologist
- Sharon Wright Austin - Director of the African-American Studies Program and a professor of political science at the University of Florida
- Deborah Avant - American political scientist at the University of Denver
- Bill Avery - politician from the state of Nebraska and retired political scientist who specializes in international trade and foreign relations
- Robert Axelrod – expert on game theory and complexity theory, wrote extensively on the Prisoner's Dilemma, former president of American Political Science Association
- Julia Azari - American political scientist, professor of political science at Marquette University and contributor to FiveThirtyEight
- Jeremy Azrael - American political scientist known for his expertise on the economy of the Soviet Union
B
- Andrew Bacevich
- Gawdat Bahgat
- Kathleen Cordelia Bailey
- Fatih Baja – Gar Yunis University teacher and member of the National Transitional Council in charge of political affairs
- Susan Baker - Irish scholar of environmental governance in the European Union and ecofeminism, gender and the environment at Cardiff University
- Lisa Baldez
- Michel Balinski
- Moniz Bandeira – Brazilian writer, professor, political scientist, historian and poet
- Mary Jo Bane
- Edward C. Banfield
- Benjamin Barber – proponent of participatory democracy and local governance teaching at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy
- James David Barber – developed a classification system of the personality types of American presidents
- Stephen Barber – noted for his work on political strategy and political economy, author of Political Strategy
- Line Bareiro - Paraguayan political scientist, civil rights activist and feminist
- Joel Barkan
- Lucius Barker
- Michael Barkun
- A. Doak Barnett
- Michael Barnett – specialist in international relations
- Thomas P.M. Barnett – security strategist
- Simion Bărnuţiu – noted for his work on political strategy in Austria and Romania
- Bethany Barratt
- Matt A. Barreto
- David M. Barrett
- Larry Bartels – democracy and voting expert at Vanderbilt University
- Robert V. Bartlett
- Gad Barzilai – Law and Politics, Human Rights and Politics, Communities and Law at University of Washington
- Sylvia Bashevkin - Canadian scholar of women and politics
- Stephen Baskerville
- Amrita Basu
- Robert Bates
- Frank Baumgartner
- Phineas Baxandall
- David H. Bayley
- Elmira Bayrasli
- Robert J. Beck
- Holmes Beckwith
- Francis Beer
- Samuel Beer
- Edward Beiser
- Linda Royster Beito
- Charles Beitz
- Aaron Belkin
- Adolphus G. Belk Jr.
- Alon Ben-Meir
- Daniel Benjamin
- Mounia Bennani-Chraïbi - Moroccan political scientist, author and professor at the University of Lausanne
- Linda L. M. Bennett
- W. Lance Bennett
- William Benoit
- Richard Bensel
- Arthur F. Bentley
- Suzanne Berger
- Adam Berinsky
- Peter Berkowitz
- Ilan Berman
- Marshall Berman
- Sheri Berman
- Nancy Bermeo
- William D. Berry
- Michele Betsill
- Richard K. Betts – prize-winning author in a number of political science areas
- Mark Bevir – professor of political science and Director of the Center for British Studies at the University of California, Berkeley
- Seweryn Bialer
- Thomas J. Biersteker
- Leonard Binder
- Sarah Binder
- Thomas A. Birkland
- Sarah Birch - professor in comparative politics at King's College London
- Thomas A. Birkland – author of Lessons of Disaster
- Rachel Bitecofer
- Duncan Black – Spatial voting theorist
- Earl Black
- Merle Black
- Chris Blattman
- Hans T. Blokland – author of Freedom and Culture in Western Society and Modernization and its political consequences
- Jean Blondel – comparative politics at University of Siena, emeritus at European University Institute
- Lincoln P. Bloomfield
- Virgil Blum
- Mark Blyth
- Alan Bock
- B. Anthony Bogues
- Jean-Charles de Borda – 18th-century mathematician who devised the Borda count
- David Bositis
- Eileen Hunt Botting
- Catherine Boone
- Ammar Bouhouche - Algerian political and military leader and academic political scientist
- Terry Bouricius
- Donna Lee Bowen
- Shaun Bowler
- Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier
- Mark A. Boyer
- Jules Boykoff
- Paul Bracken
- David W. Brady
- Henry E. Brady
- Ralph Braibanti
- Steven Brams – expert on voting systems
- Laurie Brand
- Paul Brass
- Ahron Bregman – expert on the Arab–Israeli conflict
- Ian Bremmer – political risk specialist
- Janine Brodie - Distinguished University Professor and Canada Research Chair in Political Economy and Social Governance at the University of Alberta
- Stephen Brooks – international relations scholar
- Lara Brown - American political scientist and director of the Graduate School of Political Management at the George Washington University
- Nadia E. Brown – uses intersectionality to study identity politics, legislative studies, and Black women's studies
- Robert X. Browning – specialist in American politics and chief archivist for C-SPAN
- Zbigniew Brzezinski – Polish American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman
- Bruce Bueno de Mesquita – pioneering game theorist with applications to international relations, author of selectorate theory
- Ralph Bunche – American political scientist and diplomat; received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Palestine
- Walter Dean Burnham – expert in the field of realigning elections, emeritus at University of Texas at Austin
- David Butler – pioneer of modern British political science, invented the concept of swing
C
- Linda Cardinal - University Professor and a Canada Research Chair in Canadian Francophonie and Public Policies at the University of Ottawa
- Ira Carmen – co-founder of the social science subdiscipline of genetics and politics
- Edward Hallett Carr – international relations theorist
- Alfredo Castillero Hoyos – democracy and human rights; former member of the United Nations's Human Rights Committee
- George Catlin – English political scientist and philosopher; strong proponent of Anglo-America cooperation; worked for many years as a professor at Cornell University
- Pamela Chasek - international environmental policy expert
- Partha Chatterjee – Indian postcolonial critic, political and social scientist
- Rumman Chowdhury - Bengali-American political scientist and data scientist at Accenture
- Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri – international relations, Indology at Institute of Commonwealth Studies
- John Coakley – specialist in ethnic conflict and Irish politics
- Benjamin Cohen – leader in the field of international political economy
- Elizabeth F. Cohen - American expert on citizenship and immigration
- Stephen P. Cohen – Middle East specialist
- James Smoot Coleman – early Africanist, founded the UCLA African Studies Center
- Marquis de Condorcet – 18th-century mathematician and philosopher who contributed the often used "Condorcet criterion" and devised the concept of a Condorcet method
- Ralph W. Conant – author of The Prospects for Revolution and Toward a More Perfect Union: The Governance of Metropolitan America
- Philip Converse – public opinion scholar, author of The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics
- Timothy E. Cook – politics and media
- Clyde Coombs – voting systems expert, designed "Coombs' method"
- Philip Cowley – author of Revolts and Rebellions
- Edvin Kanka Ćudić – Bosnian political scientist and human rights activist, founder and coordinator of UDIK in Bosnia and Herzegovina
D
- Alison Dagnes - American specialist in politics and the media, politics and humor, and political scandal
- Robert A. Dahl – American politics specialist, author of On Democracy
- Jouke de Vries – Frisian politician and professor at the university of Leiden
- Vera Micheles Dean - Russian American political scientist, former head of research for the Foreign Policy Association, and leading international affairs authority in the 1940s and 1950s
- Ronald Deibert – Canadian political scientist and founder and director of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto
- Fatima Denton - Ethiopian political scientist, Officer-in-Charge of the Special Initiatives Division and the Co-ordinator for the African Climate Policy Centre of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
- Daniel Deudney – writer and associate professor at Johns Hopkins University; author of Bounding Power: Republican Security Theory from the Polis to the Global Village
- Karl Deutsch – political scientist, focused on political communication
- Larry Diamond – comparative democratization specialist; professor at Stanford University
- Thomas Diez – Chair in International Relations at the University of Birmingham
- Michelle Dion - professor in the Department of Political Science and the Senator William McMaster Chair in Gender and Methodology at McMaster University
- John DiIulio – American politics expert at the University of Pennsylvania
- Charles Lutwidge Dodgson – author of Alice in Wonderland and professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford; devised Dodgson's method of voting
- Robert Donaldson – professor at University of Tulsa and specialist in US/Russian foreign policy
- Anthony Downs – has contributed to democratic theory, elections studies
- Donald Downs – professor at University of Wisconsin; researcher for Independent Institute
- Michael W. Doyle – international relations theorist, author of Empires
- Daniel Drezner – professor at Tufts University, specializing in international politics
- Murray Dry – professor at Middlebury College, specializing in constitutional law
- John Dryzek – professor at the Australian National University, specializing in deliberative democracy and environmental politics
- John Dunn – political theorist at the University of Cambridge
- Maurice Duverger – French lawyer and sociologist responsible for Duverger's law
- Rand Dyck – Canadian politics expert and professor at Carleton University
- Thomas R. Dye – elite theory vs. pluralism; author of The Irony of Democracy and Who's Running America?
E
- David Easton – originator of systemic theory
- Susan Eaton - American political scientist and workers' rights activist
- Daniel J. Elazar – American federalism and political culture scholar, founder of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, political science professor at Bar Ilan and Temple University
- Keisha Lynne Ellis - Bahamian political scientist
- Jean Bethke Elshtain – American political philosopher focusing on gender, ethics, American democracy, and international relations
- Jon Elster – Norwegian social and political theorist authored works in the philosophy of social science and rational choice theory and a notable proponent of Analytical Marxism
- Jadwiga Emilewicz - Polish politician, political scientist, and government minister
- Cynthia Enloe – international relations scholar focusing on Feminism in international relations, editor for such scholarly journals as Signs and the International Feminist Journal of Politics
F
- C. Christine Fair - American political scientist who studies counter-terrorism and South Asian topics
- James D. Fearon - American political scientist focusing on theory of civil wars, international bargaining, war's inefficiency puzzle and audience costs
- Peter D. Feaver – international security expert
- David Fellman – Constitutional scholar
- Richard Fenno – Congress scholar, author of Home Style: House Members in their Districts
- Thomas Ferguson – politics and economics
- Samuel Finer – academic and author on political science and history of government
- Norman Finkelstein – author on political science, notable for The Holocaust Industry
- Martha Finnemore – international relations and international organizations scholar
- Morris P. Fiorina – American politics; proposed retrospective vote theory
- Peter Fishburn – operations analysis and probability theory expert
- Keith Fitzgerald – immigration politics expert
- Naika Foroutan - German political scientist studying immigration and integration
- James H. Fowler – expert on political participation, the evolution of cooperation, and social network theory
- Daniel P. Franklin – American politics; politics of the presidency and Politics and Film
- Annette Baker Fox – international relations scholar
- William T. R. Fox – international relations theorist, coiner of the term "superpower"
- Ernst Fraenkel - German political scientist and one of the founding fathers of German political science after World War II
- Doris Fuchs - German political scientist and Professor of International Relations and Sustainable Development at the University of Münster
- Francis Fukuyama – international political theory and biopolitics
- Archon Fung
G
- Michael Gallagher
- Krenar Gashi - Ghent University political scientist and former Financial Times reporter
- Lisa García Bedolla - UC Berkeley professor, Vice Provost for Graduate Studies, and Dean of the Graduate Division
- Scott Gates – specialist in international relations
- Barbara Geddes - scholar of authoritarianism and authoritarian regimes
- Anthony Giddens – political sociologist originator of the Third Way
- Elisabeth Gidengil – Hiram Mills Professor of political science at McGill University studying political engagement and Canadian politics
- Robert Gilpin – international political economy specialist
- Benjamin Ginsberg – professor at Johns Hopkins University focusing on American politics
- Hannes Hólmsteinn Gissurarson – Professor of Political Science at the University of Iceland focusing on political theory
- Marianne Githens – political scientist, feminist, author, professor, and co-founder of the Women's Study Program at Goucher College
- Betty Glad - American researcher of the American presidency and American foreign policy
- Siri Gloppen - Norwegian political scientist
- Sheldon Goldman – expert on American federal courts; professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Grigorii Golosov – expert on political institutions and electoral systems, professor at European University at Saint Petersburg
- David F. Gordon – political risk specialist, former US Director of Policy Planning
- Harold Foote Gosnell – research and writings on American politics, elections, and political parties in political science
- Marie Gottschalk - American political scientist known for her work on mass incarceration in the United States
- Heather Grabbe - political scientist, activist, and director of the Open Society European Policy Institute in Brussels, Belgium
- Doris Graber - American pioneer in the field of political communication
- Colin Gray – international security
- Donald Green – Professor of Political Science at Columbia University focusing on field experiments in American politics
- Jane Green - professor of political science at the University of Manchester and co-director of the British Election Study who specialised in public opinion and electoral behaviour
- Liah Greenfeld - Israeli, American, and Russian social scientist
- Anna Grzymala - American political scientist, currently at Stanford University and previously also the Ronald Eileen Weiser Professor at University of Michigan
- Rhiana Gunn-Wright - American policy director
- Yaprak Gürsoy - Turkish political scientist and associate professor in the Department of International Relations at the Istanbul Bilgi University
- Ted Robert Gurr – specialist on conflict and violence
- Amy Gutmann – political theory expert; President of the University of Pennsylvania
H
- Michael Haas – Emeritus Professor of Political Science, University of Hawai'i
- Jacob Hacker – Professor of Political Science at Yale University
- Henrike Hahn - German political scientist and politician who is a Member of the European Parliament
- Paul Y. Hammond – American foreign policy and national security specialist at University of Pittsburgh and elsewhere
- Harry Harding – China specialist
- Thomas Hare – devised single transferable vote
- Jeremy Harris – American politics specialist
- Michael Hart – British twentieth-century politics specialist
- Louis Hartz – American author of The Liberal Tradition in America
- Mary Hawkesworth - American political scientist and Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University
- Colin Hay – influential British political scientist
- Clarissa Rile Hayward - professor at Washington University in St. Louis studying the theory of political power and political identities
- Katharine Hayhoe - atmospheric scientist and professor of political science at Texas Tech University and director of the Climate Science Center
- Susan Hekman - professor of political science and director of the graduate humanities program at the University of Texas at Arlington
- Marc Hetherington – author of Why Trust Matters; offered a new participation paradigm
- Christopher J. Hill – international relations scholar, Professor and Director of the Cambridge Centre of International Studies
- Roger Hilsman – aide to John F. Kennedy, Columbia University professor, and prolific author
- Nancy Hirschmann - Professor of Politics at the University of Pennsylvania working in the intersection of political theory and public policy
- Sara Hobolt - Danish political scientist who specialises in European politics and electoral behaviour
- Thomas Holbrook – public opinion and elections research, author Do Campaigns Matter?
- Christopher Hood – author of The Art of the State and A Government that Worked Better and Cost Less?
- Donald L. Horowitz – pioneered political science models for assessing ethnic conflict
- Mala Htun – studies women's rights and the politics of race and ethnicity in a comparative context
- Evelyne Huber – studies democracy and redistribution with a focus on Latin America
- Mark Huddleston – former President of Ohio Wesleyan University and President of the University of New Hampshire
- Samuel P. Huntington – author of Clash of Civilizations and ; comparativist
I
- Kancha Ilaiah – Dalit scholar and social scientist
- Ronald Inglehart – professor at the University of Michigan; founder of the World Values Survey
J
- David J. Jackson – Entertainment/celebrity and politics expert
- Lawrence R. Jacobs – American political scientist and founder and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota
- Gary Jacobson – Constitutional law expert
- Ashley E. Jardina - American political scientist and Assistant Professor of Political Science at Duke University
- Attahiru Jega - Nigerian political scientists specialised in political development ; former INEC chairman and also Former vice Chancellor of Bayero University.
- Robert Jervis – international security specialist
- Chalmers Johnson – comparative theorist
- Jason A. Johnson – campaign management
- Loch K. Johnson – United States intelligence expert
- Charles O. Jones – specialist in American politics
- Bertrand de Jouvenel – French political scientist; co-founder of Mont Pelerin Society
K
- Kelly Kadera - professor at University of Iowa studying international relations, democratic backsliding, and gender in politics using dynamic models
- Alice Kang - professor at University of Nebraska at Lincoln, expert in African politics and gender research
- Nazokat Kasimova - Uzbekistani political scientist, also noted for her work within the field of higher education reform
- Nina Kasniunas – author and the Arsht Professor in Ethics and Leadership at Goucher College
- Nancy Kassop - Professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz
- Peter Katzenstein – professor at Cornell, former president of the American Political Science Association
- Ira Katznelson – specialist in American and comparative politics
- Dennis Kavanagh
- Michael Keating – specialist in nationalism, European integration and regionalism
- Margaret Keck – developed the study of international activist movements and networked advocacy
- Edmond Keller – specialist in African politics
- Willmoore Kendall – political theorist; teacher of William F. Buckley, Jr.
- Robert O. Keohane – interdependence theory author
- Ben Kerkvliet – specialist in comparative politics
- Cornelius Kerwin – President of American University
- V.O. Key, Jr. – elections, parties and public opinion scholar
- Laleh Khalili - Iranian American and Professor in Middle Eastern Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies
- Ilona Kickbusch - German political scientist best known for her contribution to health promotion and global health
- Gary King – professor at Harvard, political methodologist
- John W. Kingdon – specialist in American politics
- Grayson L. Kirk – specialist in international relations and President of Columbia University
- Henry Kissinger – former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor to President Richard M. Nixon
- Herbert Kitschelt – author on new radical right parties
- Stephen D. Krasner – international regimes author, Director of Policy Planning under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and professor at Stanford University
- Michael Krassa – elections, social context, architecture and society; lobbyist, consultant, political sociologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
- Oskar Krejčí – theory of international relations, elections and political psychology, former advisor to two Czechoslovak premieres
- Sarah Kreps — foreign and defense policy, nuclear proliferation, and government transparency
- James Kurth
- Will Kymlicka – originated the theoretical foundations of multiculturalism
L
- Guy Laforest – liberalism scholar; Quebec and Canadian politics specialist
- Celinda Lake - American survey methodologist, pollster, and political strategist
- Enid Lakeman - British political reformer, writer and politician, noted for her long-standing championship of the Single Transferable Vote system of elections
- Laura Langbein - American quantitative methodologist and professor of public administration and policy at American University
- Harold Lasswell – political communications, pioneered early efforts to establish the policy sciences and influential contributor to the Stages Heuristic
- Adria Lawrence - American political scientist and the Aronson Associate Professor of International Studies and Political Science at Johns Hopkins University
- Jack Layton – former leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, Ph.D in Political Science
- Richard Ned Lebow – constructivist, Cold War expert, author of Tragic Vision of Politics
- Michael Leifer – international relations, South Asian Studies, London School of Economics
- Noémi Lefebvre - French political scientist at the Instituts d'études politiques of Grenoble II
- Margaret Levi – scholar of comparative political economy, labor politics, democratic theory, former American Political Science Association president
- Carl Levy – Goldsmith's College, University of London
- Robert C. Lieberman – scholar of American politics and provost of Johns Hopkins University
- Arend Lijphart – originator of consociationalism
- Fernando Limongi - professor in the São Paulo School of Economics at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas
- Juan Linz – democracy specialist
- Dan Lipinski – U.S. House of Representatives
- Seymour Martin Lipset – political theorist on democracy and development and parties; taught at Stanford University
- Leslie Lipson – was scholar of comparative politics and democracy at UC Berkeley
- Ramon Llull – discoverer of Condorcet Criterion and Borda Count
- Claudia López Hernández - Colombian political scientist and politician who was a Senator of the Republic of Colombia
- Theodore Lowi – major scholar of American politics at Cornell University
- Ian Lustick – state territoriality ethnic conflict and computer modelling in political science; University of Pennsylvania
M
- Mizanur Rahman Shelley – was a minister of the Government of Bangladesh, political analyst, political scientist and educationalist.
- Niccolò Machiavelli – considered the originator of historically based political science; author of The Prince
- Pia Mancini - political scientist, activist and technical project leader from Argentina
- Jane Mansbridge – scholar of social movements, gender, and democratic engagement, former American Political Science Association president
- Harvey C. Mansfield – political philosophy
- Zeev Maoz – Arab-Israeli Conflict and international relations expert
- Jose M. Maravall – political economist
- Helen Margetts – Formerly Director of the Oxford Internet Institute and current Director of the Public Policy Programme at the Alan Turing Institute
- David Marsh – influential British political scientist
- Juraj Marusiak – Slovak expert for Central and Eastern Europe
- Joanna Marszałek-Kawa - Polish lawyer, political scientist, professor and lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
- David R. Mayhew – U.S. legislative behavior and political parties expert
- Amy Mazur - American political scientist and professor at Washington State University
- John McCormick – specialist in European Union politics
- Tara McCormack - lecturer in international relations at the University of Leicester
- Rose McDermott - Professor of International Relations at Brown University
- Michael McFaul – Russia specialist, professor and director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University
- John McGarry – ethnic conflict specialist
- J. Patrice McSherry - professor of political science at Long Island University
- John Mearsheimer – international relations theorist and national security expert
- Samuel Merrill III – voting behavior and party competition
- George Michael – specialist in right-wing extremism
- David Miller – political philosopher, specialized in theories of social justice
- Charles Mills – political philosopher specialising in race relations; author of The Racial Contract
- Sara McLaughlin Mitchell - American political scientist and the F. Wendell Miller Professor of Political Science at University of Iowa
- Terry M. Moe – specialist in American politics
- Malcolm Moos – former President of the University of Minnesota
- Andrew Moravcsik – professor at Princeton University, liberal IR theorist, specialist on European Union politics
- Hans Morgenthau – realist, international relations specialist
- James D. Morrow – international relations expert and game theorist
- Rebecca Morton – expert in American Politics, Political Economy, and Experimental Methods; professor at New York University
- Michael Munger – trained as an economist, chair of political science at Duke University, running for governor of North Carolina as a Libertarian
- Naomi Murakawa - American political scientist and associate professor of African-American studies at Princeton University
- Mohammed Barkindo - He is Nigerian political scientists and petroleum economist. current secretary general of OPEC.CV of secretary general of OPEC.https://www.opec.org
- Clark A. Murdock – Senior Adviser, Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Diana Mutz - Samuel A. Stouffer Professor of Political Science and Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and the director of the Institute for the Study of Citizens and Politics
N
- Brigitte L. Nacos - professor in political science at Columbia University
- Arthur Naftalin – specialist in American politics and former Mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Amrita Narlikar – President of the German Institute of Global and Area Studies and former Director of the University of Cambridge Centre for Rising Powers
- Antonio Negri
- Franz Leopold Neumann – known for analysis of National Socialism
- Kalypso Nicolaïdis - Professor of International Relations and Director of the Center for International Studies at Oxford University
- David Nolan – founder of the United States Libertarian Party
- Douglass North – Nobel laureate
- Pippa Norris – Harvard comparative political scientist
- Philip Norton – British politics expert
- Julie Novkov – American political scientist at SUNY Albany studying the history of American law, American political development, and subordinated identities
- Joseph Nye – "soft power" international security specialist; Kennedy School Dean
O
- Karen O'Conner - political science professor at American University in Washington, D.C. and the Founder and Director Emerita of the Women & Politics Institute
- Aloysius-Michaels Nnabugwu Okolie -Nigerian political scientist
- Brendan O'Leary – ethnic conflict specialist
- Cornelius O'Leary – Irish historian and political scientist
- Bertell Ollman – political theorist
- Mancur Olson – international political economy specialist; expert on collective action problems; taught at the University of Maryland, College Park
- A.F.K. Organski – developed power transition theory in his 1958 book World Politics
- Norman Ornstein - American political theorist; American Enterprise Institute resident scholar
- Elinor Ostrom – specialist on common pool resources; winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize for Economics
P
- Thomas Pangle – political theorist at University of Texas at Austin
- Michael Parenti – political scientist and author
- Vilfredo Pareto
- W. Robert Parks – former President of Iowa State University
- Gianfranco Pasquino – Italian political scientist; electoral systems, comparative politics
- Armand Peschard-Sverdrup - U.S.-Mexico binational relations expert
- Sergei M. Plekhanov – Russia relations expert
- Dianne Pinderhughes – scholar of race and gender inequality & public policy, former American Political Science Association president
- Nelson W. Polsby – American politics scholar
- Samuel L. Popkin – early expert on rational choice theory
- Karl Popper – theorist, originated the open society theory
- Emilia Justyna Powell - Polish-American political scientist known for her expertise on international dispute resolution, the Islamic legal tradition, Islamic international law, and Islamic constitutionalism
- Jewel Prestage – first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in political science, former Dean of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Southern University
- Adam Przeworski – Democratic transitions theorist, author of Democracy and Development; member of the September Group
- Robert D. Putnam – social capital theorist, author of Bowling Alone
R
- Douglas W. Rae – equality theorist
- Vicky Randall - scholar of political science and gender
- Mahesh Rangarajan – Indian political analyst and researcher with a focus on contemporary Indian politics and the politics of wildlife conservation in India
- John Rawls – political philosopher
- Dan Reiter – political scientist, specialized on military conflicts and war; Professor at Emory University; author of How Wars End
- R. A. W. Rhodes – public administration scholar, pioneer of the study of policy networks in British government
- Condoleezza Rice – former National Security Advisor; former Secretary of State; professor at Stanford University
- Floyd M. Riddick – Parliamentarian of the United States Senate from 1964 to 1974, and developer of Riddick's Senate procedure
- William H. Riker – 20th-century political scientist who applied game theory to political science
- Patrick T. Riley – political theorist and Kant scholar
- Pearl T. Robinson - American professor of political science at Tufts University
- David Rohde – Congress scholar
- Stein Rokkan – expert on political parties and movements, founder of the Institute for Comparative Politics
- Richard Rose – American political scientist, Professor of Politics at the University of Aberdeen
- Richard Rosecrance – international relations and political economy expert
- Clinton Rossiter – American government and constitutional history theorist
- Susanne Hoeber Rudolph – scholar of political economy and political economy, former American Political Science Association president
- Irene S. Rubin – Emerita at Northern Illinois University focusing on interview methodology and public budgeting in American government
- John Ruggie – international relations theorist, social constructivist
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- Larry Sabato – University of Virginia professor, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, and popular political analyst
- Scott Sagan – Stanford professor and notable critic of deterrence theory
- Slobodan Samardžić – research includes political ideas and institutions, federalism, constitutionalism, and European Union
- David Samuels – comparativist scholar of Brazilian politics and political institutions
- Eliz Sanasarian - professor of political science at the University of Southern California
- Virginia Sapiro - American political psychologist
- Austin Sarat – public law specialist
- Giovanni Sartori – comparativist, expert on constitutional theory and party systems
- E.E. Schattschneider – early political parties expert, author of Party Government and The Semisovereign People: A Realist's View of Democracy in America
- Steven Schier – specialist in American Politics
- Warner R. Schilling – specialist in international relations and military technology
- Kay Lehman Schlozman - J. Joseph Moakley Professor of political science at Boston College and an expert in American political participation and gender and politics
- Vivien A. Schmidt - Jean Monnet Chair of European Integration Professor of International Relations in the Pardee School of Global Studies and Professor of Political Science at Boston University
- Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey - professor in Political Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science
- Victoria Schuck - Professor of Political Science who spent much of her career at Mount Holyoke College
- Ekaterina Schulmann - associate professor of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration and legal specialist
- Gesine Schwan – political scientist, president of the Viadrina European University, and nominated twice as a candidate for the federal presidential elections of Germany
- James C. Scott – political economist, Southeast Asia area specialist
- Hossein Seifzadeh – Iranian Professor of Political Science at University of Tehran; expert on strategic and security issues in the Middle East
- Mitchell A. Seligson – Centennial Professor of Political Science Vanderbilt University; founder of Latin American Public Opinion Project and AmericasBarometer
- Donna Shalala – former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
- Matthew Soberg Shugart – scholar of constitutional design and electoral systems
- Yekaterina Shulman – scholar specializing in lawmaking
- Beth Simmons – international relations scholar focusing on human rights
- Herbert A. Simon – Nobel Prize-winning professor at Carnegie Mellon; a founder of artificial intelligence research; received his Ph.D in political science from the University of Chicago
- Valeria Sinclair-Chapman – studies American political institutions, the representation of minority groups in the United States Congress, and minority political participation
- Theda Skocpol – comparative sociologist; former president of American Political Science Association, Harvard University
- Stephen Skowronek – presidency and American political development scholar
- Anne-Marie Slaughter – scholar of international relations, former president of the American Society of International Law
- Jean Edward Smith – political economist, biographer, international relations, constitutional law
- Rogers Smith – Pulitzer Prize finalist, American politics expert at the University of Pennsylvania
- Steven S. Smith – American politics, congressional politics, Russian politics; Director, Weidenbaum Center
- Nexhmedin Spahiu - Albanian mathematician and political scientist
- Peverill Squire – Americanist
- Allison Stanger - American political scientist and the Russell J. Leng '60 Professor of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College
- Michael Steed – British political scientist, developed the concept of "Steed swing" as distinct from "Butler swing"
- Alfred Stepan – comparativist, Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government at Columbia University
- Zeev Sternhell – theorist, political historian of political ideology
- John G. Stoessinger – international relations theorist, author of The Might of Nations: World Politics in our Time
- Donald E. Stokes – former Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton; expert on elections
- Susan Stokes - Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor in the Political Science department of the University of Chicago and the faculty director of the Chicago Center on Democracy
- Herbert Storing – American politics expert
- Susan Strange – British expert in international relations; taught at the London School of Economics
- Dara Strolovitch – studies the politics of race, class, gender, and sexuality in the context of intersectional societal inequality
- Carol Swain – Professor of Law and Political Science at Vanderbilt University; expert on immigration and race
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- Rein Taagepera – comparativist, expert on electoral systems and history of government
- Colin Talbot – Chair of Government at the University of Manchester; adviser to various Parliamentary Committees of the United Kingdom
- Marco Tarchi – professor at University of Florence, right-wing militant and creator of Nouvelle Droite
- Katherine Tate - Professor of Political Science at Brown University
- Sally Terry - political science professor at Tufts University from 1975 until her retirement in 2002
- Dennis Thompson – political theorist at Harvard University
- J. Ann Tickner – feminist international relations theorist and current president of the International Studies Association
- Virginia Tilley – specialist on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Charles Tilly – professor at Columbia University, his work includes contentious politics and evolution of modern states
- Herbert Tingsten – professor of political science at Stockholm University
- Jeanne Theoharis - Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College.
- Reeta Chowdhari Tremblay - Canadian political scientist, former senior academic administrator, and an expert on Kashmir and India-Pakistan
- George Tsebelis – game theorist notable for his general theory of veto players and for describing the Robinson Crusoe fallacy
- Tijjani Muhammad Bande - Nigerian political scientist permanent representative of Nigeria to the UN and president-elect UNGA
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- Patrick Utomi - political economist
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- Stephen Van Evera – MIT international relations expert, known for proposing the Offense-Defense theory
- Tatu Vanhanen – democratization and ethnic nepotism
- Sarojini Varadappan - Indian social worker who earned her PhD at the age of 80
- Sidney Verba - American political scientist, librarian and library administrator
- Mieke Verloo - Professor of comparative politics and inequality issues at Radboud University
- Eric Voegelin – in his major work, Order and History in five volumes, he rejected the notion that political science should become a positivistic social science
- Margaret Vogt - Nigerian diplomat and political scientist who served as Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Integrated Peace-building Office in the Central African Republic
- Leah Vosko – professor at York University
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- Helen Wallace – international relations specialist
- Denise Walsh – studies the relationship between women's rights and political inclusion and level of democracy
- Stephen Walt – international relations specialist
- Kenneth N. Waltz – founder of the neorealist international relations school
- Michael Walzer – international relations, just war theory
- John Wanna – Sir John Bunting Chair of Public Administration at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government
- Georgina Waylen – comparative politics, political economy, and gender
- Linda Weiss - professor of political science at the University of Sydney
- Patricia A. Weitsman – international relations scholar, alliance theory
- S. Laurel Weldon - Canadian and American political scientist and Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Simon Fraser University
- Alexander Wendt – social constructivism proponent
- Darrell M. West – specialist in electronic government, Brookings Institution director of Governance Studies
- John Henry Whyte – specialist in Northern Irish politics
- Aaron Wildavsky – author of Risk and Culture
- Bruce A. Williams – specialist in American politics
- Danny Williams – Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador
- James Q. Wilson – former President of the American Political Science Association
- Woodrow Wilson – former Professor of Politics at Princeton University and former US President
- William Wohlforth – international relations scholar
- Elisabeth Jean Wood – studies sexual violence during war, the emergence of political insurgencies and individuals' participation in them, and democratization
- Ngaire Woods – founding dean of the Blavatnik School of Government
- Susan L. Woodward – professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York
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- Atilla Yayla – Professor of Politics, Political Economy and Political Philosophy at Gazi University in Turkey; president of the Association for Liberal Thinking
- Yelyzaveta Yasko - Ukrainian political scientist and politician who is a member of the Ukrainian Parliament
- M. Crawford Young – comparativist, Africa scholar
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- Fareed Zakaria – international relations expert
- John Zaller – author of The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion; at UCLA
- Elizabeth Zechmeister – comparativist at Vanderbilt University, Latin American politics and public opinion expert, Director of the Latin America Public Opinion Project
- Ina Zhupa - Albanian political scientist who studies Democratization and Values of Albanian Society