Joseph LaPalombara

Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science and Management

Joseph LaPalombara, A.B. University of Illinois, Ph.D. Princeton, faculty member at Oregon State and Michigan State and at Yale since 1964: for nearly forty years, first in the Department of Political Science and more recently also in the School of Management you have brought the world to Yale and Yale to the world. Author of scores of books and articles, you are not only the foremost American authority on Italian politics of your generation but also a widely respected authority on comparative political theory, the dynamics of bureaucratic politics, and the political significance of the multinational corporation. Your work in these areas has mixed rich knowledge of particular cases with ambitious theoretical reflection and your sharp scrutiny of received viewpoints has often been geared to overturning conventional wisdom. Of your many books, perhaps none captures these qualities, as well as your special genius and charm, better than Democracy, Italian Style, your 1988 book in defense of Italy’s “fascinating, paradoxical and ultimately logical” democracy, written with such verve, wit and iconoclasm that dozens of reviewers raved and even such usually dour critics as Gore Vidal and Umberto Eco paid sincere homage.

The spirit you brought to your writing, and to your visible speaking and lecturing around the globe you also have brought to Yale, your home. Twice Chairman of the Department of Political Science, Director from 1987-1991 of the Institute for Social and Policy Studies, you have always been one to whom colleagues mattered and for whom the organization, leadership, intellectual discourse and ferment of a good University have brought challenge and pleasure. Generations of students and colleagues have found you a remarkably careful and constructive reader of their work. And when the University community has needed you, you have been there, pressing those in authority to make Yale live up to its best traditions and highest aspirations. As you retire from the active faculty now, to continue your busy intercontinental life and perhaps to enjoy even more the art, music and poetry that you value so highly, a grateful Yale faculty says “Mille Grazie” and “Buona Fortuna”!

Tribute Editor: Penelope Laurans