Skocpol

Skocpol is a surname most commonly associated with Theda Skocpol, an American political scientist and sociologist born in 1947. She is a professor at Harvard University and a leading figure in comparative-historical sociology, political science, and public policy. Skocpol is best known for developing a structural, historical approach to social and political change.

Her 1979 book States and Social Revolutions: A Structural Analysis of the Origins of Revolutionary Movements challenged purely economic or individual-centered explanations of revolutions. It argues that revolutions arise from the interaction of state breakdown, peasant-based movements, and mobilizing political contexts within specific international conditions, rather than from any single factor. The work has been highly influential in the study of revolutions in Russia, France, and China and helped popularize the comparative-historical method in political science and sociology.

In 1992 she published Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy, which analyzes the development of welfare policies in Europe and the United States. The book emphasizes the role of state capacity, organized interests, and social structures in shaping policy outcomes. Skocpol has written extensively on social policy, state power, and the processes by which political and social institutions influence policy development, contributing to broader understandings of how historical forces shape contemporary politics.