“So many political scientists talk ‘Ted’”

From behind his podium, with lecture notes he always revised before class, [Ted] would preach his gospel to believers and non-believers alike. He was not a religious person, but coming from the deep south, and having played music with his mother and his siblings at the local Jewish temple, he was really an Evangelical, a preacher who followed his own apostles: Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton and V.O. Key. We all became true believers, with great appreciation for the architecture of the American democracy, learning that just like fine art, you can admire it and nevertheless be critical of it at the same time….

Paraphrasing Henry Adams, he would often say that a sign you truly made it was if you had been plagiarized. If that is any measure, then Ted really made it, as so many political scientists talk ‘Ted’ and share his ideas without even knowing it. He would probably swear a lot and claim they stole his best ideas, just like when he ghostwrote Bobby Kennedy’s The Pursuit of Justice, but in his pawky eyes you [saw] how proud he was they did. 

A few decades ago, in the only survey ever completed among political scientists that asked who is the most influential political scientist alive, Professor Lowi came first. He served as the president of the American Political Science Association and the International Political Science Association, which goes to show what his colleagues thought of him....

Israel Sergio Waismel-Manor

Senior Lecturer, School of Political Science

‎University of Haifa