Famous but Misunderstood

Widely cited but increasingly seldom read, Maurice Duverger (1917–2014) exemplifies the fate of many canonical thinkers not only in political science. This monograph revisits his legacy through an in-depth analysis of three interconnected pillars of his work: the formulation of Duverger’s laws concerning the relationship between electoral systems and party systems; his typology of pluralist party systems; and his empirical theories of democracy. Duverger’s ideas are examined in close comparison with the later and highly influential contributions of Giovanni Sartori (1924–2017) and Arend Lijphart (*1936).
Authored by political scientist Miroslav Novák, recipient of the 2024 Czech Political Science Association Award for his contribution to the development of Czech political science, the book persuasively argues that contemporary scholarship has significantly misunderstood Duverger’s work. In doing so, it calls for a reassessment not only of Duverger’s theories but also of prevailing narratives about the evolution of political science in the second half of the twentieth century.