Robert Bates
Encyclopedia
Robert Hinrichs Bates (born 1942) is an American political scientist. He is Eaton Professor of the Science of Government in the Departments of Government and African and African American Studies at Harvard University
. Since 2000, he has also served as Professeur associe, School of Economics, University of Toulouse.
After graduating from Haverford College
in 1964, Bates took his Ph.D. in Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. He has also studied anthropology (at Manchester University and the School of Oriental and African Studies
) and economics (at Stanford University
) at the graduate level. He joined the faculty of the [California Institute of Technology]] in 1969. From 1985 until 1993 he was Luce Professor of Political Economy at Duke University
. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1991.
Bates’s research focuses on the political economy of development, particularly in Africa. Starting with field work in the mining townships of the Copperbelt (Unions, Parties, and Political Development: A Study of Mineworkers in Zambia. New Haven: Yale University Press
, 1971) he subsequently conducted field work in the Luapula Valley of Zambia (Rural Responses to Industrialization: A Study of Village Zambia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976); the relationship between town and country continues to mark his work. Expanding the scope of his research to include countries in Eastern and Western Africa as well, he addresses the politics of agricultural development and food supply just at the time that dearth and famine increasingly arose on the continent (Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policy. Berkeley: University of California Press
, Series on Social Choice and Political Economy, 1981). Embraced by major figures on the left and supporters of the gathering “Washington Consensus” on the right, the book exerted major influence in the policy world as well as in academia.
Drawn to Uganda to help restructure its coffee industry after the fall of Idi Amin, Bates witnessed the violence and conflict that increasingly came to mark the politics of Africa. While his research took him to Latin America and the global coffee industry (Open Economy Politics: The Politics and Economics of the International Coffee Market. Princeton University Press
, 1997), he soon returned to Africa and turned his focus to the roots of order and conflict in the region (When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
. 2008).
Under the auspices of the Africa Economic Research Consortium, Bates returns to Africa twice yearly to work with researchers there. It was under those auspices – and those of Harvard University – that he contributed to the major two-volume analysis of Africa’s economic performance in the post independence period (Co-author with Benno Ndulu et al. The Political Economy of Economic Growth in Africa, 1960-2000: An Analytic Survey and co-editor with Benno Ndulu el al. The Political Economy of Economic Growth in Africa, 1960-2000: Case Studies, both Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Bates has listed teaching and the training of graduate students as the aspect of his career that he finds most rewarding (Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder. Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press
, 2007).
Bates has received numerous grants from the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and other sources; been a Carnegie Scholar, an Olin Fellow at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, and Moore Fellow at the California Institute of Technology; and received the Riker Prize from the University of Rochester’s department of political science. He has served as Vice President of the American Political Science Association and President of its Comparative Politics Section and on the editorial board of book series with the California and Cambridge University Press. He has held fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and the Russell Sage Foundation. A sometime consultant with the World Bank, he is also a member of the Political Instability Task Force.
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Since 2000, he has also served as Professeur associe, School of Economics, University of Toulouse.
After graduating from Haverford College
Haverford College
Haverford College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States, a suburb of Philadelphia...
in 1964, Bates took his Ph.D. in Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. He has also studied anthropology (at Manchester University and the School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
) and economics (at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
) at the graduate level. He joined the faculty of the [California Institute of Technology]] in 1969. From 1985 until 1993 he was Luce Professor of Political Economy at Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 1991.
Bates’s research focuses on the political economy of development, particularly in Africa. Starting with field work in the mining townships of the Copperbelt (Unions, Parties, and Political Development: A Study of Mineworkers in Zambia. New Haven: Yale University Press
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....
, 1971) he subsequently conducted field work in the Luapula Valley of Zambia (Rural Responses to Industrialization: A Study of Village Zambia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976); the relationship between town and country continues to mark his work. Expanding the scope of his research to include countries in Eastern and Western Africa as well, he addresses the politics of agricultural development and food supply just at the time that dearth and famine increasingly arose on the continent (Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policy. Berkeley: University of California Press
University of California Press
University of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish books and papers for the faculty of the University of California, established 25 years earlier in 1868...
, Series on Social Choice and Political Economy, 1981). Embraced by major figures on the left and supporters of the gathering “Washington Consensus” on the right, the book exerted major influence in the policy world as well as in academia.
Drawn to Uganda to help restructure its coffee industry after the fall of Idi Amin, Bates witnessed the violence and conflict that increasingly came to mark the politics of Africa. While his research took him to Latin America and the global coffee industry (Open Economy Politics: The Politics and Economics of the International Coffee Market. Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press
-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
, 1997), he soon returned to Africa and turned his focus to the roots of order and conflict in the region (When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
. 2008).
Under the auspices of the Africa Economic Research Consortium, Bates returns to Africa twice yearly to work with researchers there. It was under those auspices – and those of Harvard University – that he contributed to the major two-volume analysis of Africa’s economic performance in the post independence period (Co-author with Benno Ndulu et al. The Political Economy of Economic Growth in Africa, 1960-2000: An Analytic Survey and co-editor with Benno Ndulu el al. The Political Economy of Economic Growth in Africa, 1960-2000: Case Studies, both Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Bates has listed teaching and the training of graduate students as the aspect of his career that he finds most rewarding (Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder. Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press
Johns Hopkins University Press
The Johns Hopkins University Press is the publishing division of the Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The Press publishes books, journals, and electronic databases...
, 2007).
Bates has received numerous grants from the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and other sources; been a Carnegie Scholar, an Olin Fellow at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, and Moore Fellow at the California Institute of Technology; and received the Riker Prize from the University of Rochester’s department of political science. He has served as Vice President of the American Political Science Association and President of its Comparative Politics Section and on the editorial board of book series with the California and Cambridge University Press. He has held fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and the Russell Sage Foundation. A sometime consultant with the World Bank, he is also a member of the Political Instability Task Force.
Books and edited collections by Robert H. Bates
- Unions, Parties, and Political Development: A Study of Mineworkers in Zambia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971.
- Rural Responses to Industrialization: A Study of Village Zambia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976.
- Agricultural Development in Africa: Issues of Public Policy, co-editor Michael F. Lofchie. New York: Praeger Publishers, Special Studies on International Development, 1980.
- Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policy. Berkeley: University of California Press, Series on Social Choice and Political Economy, 1981. Paperback edition, 1984. Second edition, 2005. Chinese edition, 2001.
- Essays on the Political Economy of Rural Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Paperback edition, Berkeley: University of California Press, Series on Social Choice and Political Economy, 1987. Reprinted, Cambridge University Press, 2008.
- Toward A Political Economy of Development: A Rational Choice Perspective, editor and co-author. Berkeley: University of California Press, Series in Social Choice and Political Economy, 1988.
- Special issue of Politics and Society, edited with Margaret Levi, vol 16, nos. 2-3 (June-September 1988).
- Beyond the Miracle of the Market: The Political Economy of Agrarian Development in Kenya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Paperback edition, 1992. Second edition, 2005. Chinese edition 2008.
- Political and Economic Interactions in Economic Policy Reform. Co-authored and co-edited with Anne O. Krueger. Oxford: Basil BlackwellBasil BlackwellSir Basil Blackwell was born Henry Blackwell in Oxford, England. He was the son of the founder of Blackwell's bookshop in Oxford, which went on to become the Blackwell's family publishing and bookshop empire, located on Broad Street in central Oxford...
, 1993. - Africa and the Disciplines: The Contribution of African Studies to the Humanities and Social Sciences. Editor with Jean O'Barr and V. S. Mudimbe. Chicago: University of Chicago PressUniversity of Chicago PressThe University of Chicago Press is the largest university press in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including The Chicago Manual of Style, dozens of academic journals, including Critical Inquiry, and a wide array of...
, 1993. - Open Economy Politics: The Politics and Economics of the International Coffee Market. Princeton: Princeton University PressPrinceton University Press-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
, 1997. One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Books of 1997. Spanish edition 2006. - Analytic Narratives, with Avner Greif, Margaret Levi, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, and Barry Weingast. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999. Chinese edition, 2008.
- Prosperity and Violence: The Political Economy of Development. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001. Second edition in press.
- Co-author with Benno Ndulu et al. The Political Economy of Economic Growth in Africa, 1960-2000: An Analytic Survey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
- Co-editor with Benno Ndulu et al. The Political Economy of Economic Growth in Africa, 1960-2000: Case Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
- When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.