Rein Taagepera awarded the Karl Deutsch Award

Professor Emeritus at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies Rein Taagepera receives Karl Deutsch Award from the International Political Science Association (IPSA). As an award recipient, he is invited to the IPSA World Congress to present a prize lecture on July, 27 2016.

Karl Deutsch Award is one of the highest awards in the field of comparative politics. The purpose of the Karl Deutsch Award is to honour a prominent scholar engaged in the cross-disciplinary research of which Karl Deutsch was a master. It is awarded by the International Political Science Association in every year when an IPSA World Congress of Political Science is held. The award is made on the recommendation of the IPSA Committee on Awards and is supported by the Karl Deutsch fund.

Karl Deutsch (1912-1992) who spent most of his life in the US is considered one of the 20th century's leading political- and social scientist. According to Piret Ehin, Deputy Head for Research of the UT Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies a number of common features can be found in Rein Taagepera’s and Karl Deutsch life and research activity. Both are East Europeans who fled from totalitarian regimes to USA: Rein Taagepera from Estonia in 1944 and Karl Deutsch from Czechoslovakia in 1938. Both became professors of political science in the USA. Both have been engaged in social science methodology and are pioneers in implementation of quantitative methods and model-based approach. Both of their research has been with a wide range and cross disciplinary meaning.

Rein Taagepera is Professor Emeritus at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu. He is interested in constructing quantitatively predictive models in social sciences. His most recent books are on predicting the number and size of parties on the basis of electoral systems, and logical model building in general. Professor Taagepera has also constructed and tested models for arms races, increase in world population, and growth of historical empires. He has written books on Baltic history and the Finno-Ugric republics within the Russian Federation. His present research includes the impact of size of components on social phenomena, and he is finalizing a beginners’ text on how to construct logical models. Rein Taagepera is the winner of the Johan Skytte prize in Political Science given by the Skytte Foundation at Uppsala University in 2008.

Additional information:
Piret Ehin
Deputy Head for Research
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
piret.ehin@ut.ee
+372 737 5938