Adam Przeworski (; born May 5, 1940) is a Polish-American professor of political science specializing in comparative politics. He is Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor Emeritus in the Department of Politics of New York University. He is a scholar of democratic societies, theory of democracy, social democracy and political economy, as well as an early proponent of rational choice theory in political science.Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder, "Adam Przeworski: Capitalism, Democracy, and Science,” pp. 456–503, in Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder, Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007; .
Biography He was born in 1940 in Warsaw, Poland when the country was occupied by Nazi Germany. His parents were physicians. His father, whom he never met, was conscripted in the Polish army in 1939 and killed in the 1940 Katyn massacre by Soviet troops.Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder, "Adam Przeworski: Capitalism, Democracy, and Science,” pp. 456–503, in Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder, Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007, pp. 457–458.
His uncle Andrzej Przeworski was a Polish footballer, referee and manager. His wife is a former senior manager at the OECD and the UN and the founding director of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy. Their daughter Molly Przeworski is a population geneticist. Both Adam Przeworski and Molly were the first father-daughter members elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Przeworski was also elected to the British Academy. Przeworski is an ardent fan of the English football club Arsenal.Adam Przeworski "Democracy: A Never-Ending Quest." Annual Review of Political Science Vol. 19 (2016): 1–12, p. 2.
Przeworski graduated from University of Warsaw in 1961 with a MA in philosophy and sociology. In Warsaw, Przeworski met a Northwestern University political science professor, R. Barry Farrell. Farrell persuaded Przeworski to move to the United States to study political science. According to Przeworski, "I don’t remember if I had the smarts to ask him what political science was: I did not know what it was. But even if he had asked me if I wanted to work on a ship sailing around the world, I would have said ‘‘yes.’’ I was twenty years old, and I would have gone anywhere to do anything."Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder, "Adam Przeworski: Capitalism, Democracy, and Science,” pp. 456–503, in Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder, Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007, pp 459–460.
Przeworski received his Ph.D. in political science from Northwestern University in 1966. Thereafter, he taught at Washington University in St. Louis (1969–1973), the University of Chicago (1973–1995), and New York University (NYU) (1995–present). He is currently professor emeritus at NYU.
At the University of Chicago, he was awarded the title of Martin A. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor.Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder, "Adam Przeworski: Capitalism, Democracy, and Science,” pp. 456–503, in Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder, Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007, pp 457. At NYU, he was Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Politics and (by courtesy) of Economics Emeritus. He also held visiting appointments in India, Chile, Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain (Juan March Institute), and Switzerland.
Przeworski joined the September Group of analytical Marxists in 1979 or 1980; he left the group in 1995.Adam Przeworski, “What Have I Learned from Marx and What Still Stands? Politics & Society 49(4)(2021): 433–450, .
Academic research
Przeworski has published widely in a variety of fields. One of his early works, The Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry (1970),Adam Przeworski and Henry Teune, The Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry. New York: Wiley, 1970) is "an important influence on methodological practices in comparative politics."Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder, "Adam Przeworski: Capitalism, Democracy, and Science,” pp. 456–503, in Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder, Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007, p. 457.
His two books in the 1980s, Capitalism and Social Democracy (1985) and the coauthored Paper Stones (1986), turned to the question of why leftist parties "abandon socialism and adopt instead a reformist agenda within the parameters of capitalism."Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder, "Adam Przeworski: Capitalism, Democracy, and Science,” pp. 456–503, in Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder, Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007, p. 456.
Thereafter he wrote several works on various aspects of democracy: Democracy and the Market (1991), Democracy and Development (2000), Democracy and the Limits of Self-Government (2010), Why Bother with Elections? (2018), and Crises of Democracy (2019). Among other things, in these works on democracy Przeworski has defended a minimalist conception of democracy in which "democracy is just a system in which rulers are selected by competitive elections."Adam Przeworski, “Minimalist Conception of Democracy: A Defense,” pp. 23–55, in Ian Shapiro and Casiano Hacker-Cordón (eds.), Democracy’s Value (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 23.
Przeworski also published two broad overviews of theories of the state and political economy: The State and the Economy Under Capitalism (1990) and States and Markets (2003).
Two enduring concerns in Przeworski's research have been: (1) the compatibility of democracy and capitalism, and (2) the possibility of a democratic path to socialism.Adam Przeworski, “What Have I Learned from Marx and What Still Stands? Politics & Society 49(4)(2021): 433–450, . Przeworski acknowledged that an important influence on his thinking throughout his life has been the works of Karl Marx.Adam Przeworski, “What Have I Learned from Marx and What Still Stands? Politics & Society 49(4)(2021): 433–450.
The Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry
In The Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry (1970), Przeworski and Teune introduced the idea of "most similar systems" and "most different systems" designs.Adam Przeworski and Henry Teune, The Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry. New York: Wiley, 1970, Ch. 2. This book also introduced a key distinction relevant in research on measurement: the distinction between "common indicators" and "system-specific indicators."Adam Przeworski and Henry Teune, The Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry. New York: Wiley, 1970, Ch. 6.
Capitalism and Social Democracy and Paper Stones In Capitalism and Social Democracy (1985), and in the companion volume with John Sprague Paper Stones: A History of Electoral Socialism (1985),Przeworski, Adam. 1985. Capitalism and Social Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Przeworski, Adam, and John Sprague. 1986. Paper Stones: A History of Electoral Socialism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Przeworski argues that European socialist parties in the first half of the 20th century faced a sequence of electoral dilemmas. The first dilemma was whether or not to participate in bourgeois elections, when universal suffrage was progressively established in Europe. The question was whether or not participation would contribute to the struggle for socialism or strengthen the capitalist order.Adam Przeworski, Capitalism and Social Democracy, p. 13. According to Przeworski, most socialist parties have opted to get involved in elections, since it was a means to advance some of the interests of workers in the short run and, as references to Friedrich Engels and Eduard Bernstein illustrate in Przeworski's book, to move toward socialism.Adam Przeworski, Capitalism and Social Democracy, p. 13, 17, 30–31.
According to Przeworski, the decision to participate in bourgeois elections led to another dilemma. Given that manual workers were not the numerical majority in any European country, to win elections they had to choose whether or not to compromise their socialist principles and adopt a social democratic agenda to attract the support of allies, especially the middle class.Adam Przeworski, “Capitalism and Social Democracy”, pp. 23–29. Such compromise had major consequences for socialist parties, including the withdrawal of support of workers,Adam Przeworski, Capitalism and Social Democracy, p. 106. the abandoning of extra-parliamentary tactics,Adam Przeworski, Capitalism and Social Democracy, p. 15. and progressively the defection from socialist policies when in power.Adam Przeworski, “Capitalism and Social Democracy”, pp. 30–35.
Criticism to Przeworski's account of the dilemmas of social democratic parties have been at least twofold. First, it has been shown that numerical majority is not necessary for social democratic parties to control governments,Leif Lewin, Ideology and Strategy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). which implies that social democratic parties do not necessarily need to sacrifice workers’ votes to win elections. Second, Gøsta Esping-Andersen argues that Przeworski is mistaken in attempting to differentiate reformist and revolutionary policies, since "we have no accepted criteria for deciding which actions will merely reflect the status quo and which will accelerate historical transformation."Gøsta Esping-Andersen, Politics against Markets (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), p. 9. Esping-Andersen suggests that policies that leftist parties adopt should be compared based on how they aid the process of class unity.Gøsta Esping-Andersen, Politics against Markets (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), p. 10.
Democracy and the Market
In Democracy and the Market (1991),Adam Przeworski, Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Przeworski analyzes events in Eastern Europe and Latin America, focusing on transitions to democracy and market-oriented economic reforms. Przeworski presents a minimalist view of democracy: "Democracy is a system in which parties lose elections.".Adam Przeworski, Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 10. He analyzes transitions to democracy using rudimentary game theory, and he emphasizes the interdependence of political and economic transformations.
Democracy and Development
In Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-Being in the World, 1950–1990 (2000), Przeworski provides a statistical analysis of the causes and consequences of democracy across the globe.
On the causes of democracy, Przeworski assesses Seymour Martin Lipset’s thesis about the impact of economic development on political regimes and finds that Lipset’s argument regarding the association between a high level of economic development and the stability of democracy is supported. However, Przeworski "challenged the view that increases in the level of development are associated with increased prospects of transitions to democracy."
On the consequences of democracy, Przeworski argued, against authors such as Samuel P. Huntington, that "democracies perform as well economically as do authoritarian regimes."Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder, "Adam Przeworski: Capitalism, Democracy, and Science,” pp. 456–503, in Gerardo L. Munck and Richard Snyder, Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007, p 457.
Democracy and the Limits of Self-Government
This book is Przeworski's most extended discussion of the ideal of democracy and how much of this ideal can realistically be attained.