Charles Edward Merriam facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Charles Edward Merriam
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| Born |
Charles Edward Merriam Jr.
November 15, 1874 |
| Died | January 8, 1953 (aged 78) |
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Elizabeth Hilda Doyle
(m. 1900) |
| Children | 4, including Robert E. Merriam |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Chicago |
| Thesis | History of the Theory of Sovereignty Since Rousseau (1900) |
| Academic advisors | John Burgess |
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Charles Edward Merriam Jr. (1874–1953) was an important American professor. He taught political science at the University of Chicago. Political science is the study of how governments work and how people behave in politics. Merriam helped create a new way of studying politics called the behavioral approach. He also taught many students who became important in their fields. He was a key thinker in the Progressive Movement, which aimed to improve society through government action. He also advised several US Presidents. When he passed away, The New York Times newspaper called him "one of the outstanding political scientists in the country."
Contents
Early Life and Education
Charles Merriam was born in Hopkinton, Iowa, on November 15, 1874. His parents were Charles Edward Merriam and Margaret Campbell Kirkwood Merriam. His family came from Scotland and settled in Massachusetts in 1638. His father moved to Iowa in 1855 and fought in the American Civil War. Charles's parents were married in 1868. His father owned a store and was also the postmaster and head of the school board in Hopkinton. Charles Jr. had an older brother, John C. Merriam, who became a famous scientist who studied ancient life forms. He also had a younger sister, Susan Agnes Merriam.
Merriam went to public school in Hopkinton. He finished college at Lenox College in 1893. His father was on the school's board. After college, he taught for a year. Then, he went back to school and earned a law degree from the University of Iowa in 1895. He continued his studies at Columbia University, getting his master's degree in 1897 and his PhD (a very high degree) in 1900. While working on his PhD, he also studied in Paris, France, and Berlin, Germany, in 1899. Some of his teachers who influenced his early ideas about politics included Frank Johnson Goodnow, Otto von Gierke, and James Harvey Robinson.
In 1900, he married Elizabeth Hilda Doyle from Constable, New York.
Career and Contributions
Academic Work and New Ideas
Merriam started teaching at the University of Chicago in 1900. He was the first person hired for the political science department there. In 1903, he wrote a book called A History of American Political Theories. This book looked at American political ideas and strongly supported the growing Progressive movement. He quickly moved up in his department and became a full Professor in 1911. He led the political science department from 1911 until he retired.
Merriam had a big impact on how political science was studied in the United States. Experts say that his ideas can be seen in almost every part of modern political science. One political scientist said that Merriam "set the standard for how American democracy should be studied." Another expert, Gabriel Almond, said that the "Chicago school" of political science, which Merriam led, was very important in starting modern political science.
Merriam believed in using facts and numbers to study politics. Even though he wasn't a math expert himself, he started the behavioral approach to political science. This approach focuses on observing and measuring how people actually behave in political situations. He thought that political science should be practical and help create a more fair and democratic society. He also believed that social scientists could be helpful advisors to political leaders.
Merriam also changed how political science departments were run in universities. He brought together many excellent scholars. He and his team trained many future political scientists, making their department very strong for 30 years. He encouraged the field to move away from just talking about theories and instead do real research. He also created the first research centers in the U.S. where different social sciences worked together. He was also good at getting money from private groups and foundations to pay for this research.
Local Politics in Chicago
Merriam was involved in Chicago city government. He was part of a group that worked on Chicago's city rules in 1906. He also studied Chicago's tax system and later became a leader in an important city organization. He served as an Alderman (a city council member) for Chicago's 7th Ward from 1909 to 1911. He won this job partly because his 1903 book was popular. He worked on important city committees, like those for Crime and Finance. He also served on commissions for the city's harbor and waste.
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In 1911, he left his alderman job to run for Mayor of Chicago as a Republican. He didn't win, losing by a small number of votes. Merriam and his campaign manager, Harold L. Ickes, helped start the Illinois Progressive Party. He supported Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912 presidential election. He served as an Alderman again from 1913 to 1917, this time as an Independent. In 1916, he created the Bureau of Public Efficiency, a private group that helped set up organizations like the Chicago Park District. He lost his bid to be re-elected as alderman in 1917 by only five votes. He ran for mayor again in 1919 but lost in the Republican primary election.
Working for the U.S. Government
Charles E. Merriam also worked for the U.S. government and advised several presidents. In 1911, President William Howard Taft asked him to join a group studying how the government's executive branch worked, but Merriam said no. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked him to join the new Tariff Commission, but he declined again.
During World War I, Merriam, who was 43, joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps as a captain. He also worked for the Committee on Public Information, a government agency that aimed to get Americans to support the war. From April to September 1918, he worked in Rome, Italy. His job was to help encourage the Italian public to stay on the side of the Allied powers in the war. He also worked to strengthen national unity.
Back in Chicago, Merriam helped organize studies by political scientists. These studies looked at how experts were used in making policies, how people were taught about citizenship, and how public opinion was formed. In his book The Making of Citizens (1934), Merriam explored how different countries tried to build a strong sense of national purpose. He believed that a more scientific approach could help strengthen democratic and pluralistic ideas.
In 1923, he helped create the Local Community Research Committee (LCRC), which collected information on city problems. He also helped start the Social Science Research Council in 1923 and was its first president. In 1929, he helped create the Public Administration Clearing House, which helped different groups working in public administration to work together.
Merriam was the president of the American Political Science Association in 1925. That same year, he wrote New Aspects of Politics. In this book, he said that political science research should be used to find solutions to important social problems.
He returned to government work in 1929, serving as vice chairman on President Herbert Hoover's President's Research Committee on Social Trends (PRCST). This was a major government study that looked at population changes and new social issues in the U.S.
During the Great Depression, Merriam was seen as the most important political scientist in the country. In 1933, Harold Ickes, who was then a government secretary, asked Merriam to join the National Planning Board. Merriam was the most influential member of this group. He helped write plans for a bigger welfare state, which means more government programs to help people. President Franklin D. Roosevelt liked these plans, but they were never fully put into action.
In 1934, Merriam was part of a group that studied how federal government workers were hired and managed. This group made important suggestions for improving the civil service (government jobs based on skill, not connections). Many of their ideas were later used by different states.
Merriam believed that the government's plans would work better if the executive branch (the President and their team) was well-organized. So, he pushed President Roosevelt to create a committee to study how the executive branch was structured. Roosevelt liked the idea. In 1936, Roosevelt set up the Committee on Administrative Management, also known as the Brownlow Committee. Merriam was one of the three members. In 1937, the committee released its report, famously saying, "The President needs help." The report suggested many changes to make the President's office stronger and more efficient. This included adding more staff for the President and making more government jobs based on merit.
Retirement and Death
Charles Merriam retired from the University of Chicago in 1940, when he was 66 years old.
He was the last director of the Lucy Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund from 1940 until it joined with the Rockefeller Foundation in 1949.
Charles Merriam passed away on January 8, 1953, in Rockville, Maryland, after a long illness. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The University of Illinois honors a distinguished academic each year with the Charles E. Merriam Award for Outstanding Public Policy Research.
Notable Works
Merriam wrote many books during his life. Some of his most important works include:
- A History of American Political Theories. New York: MacMillan, 1903.
- The American Party System: An Introduction to the Study of Political Parties in the United States. New York: MacMillan, 1922.
- Non-Voting: Causes and Methods of Control. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1924.
- New Aspects of Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1925.
- The Making of Citizens: A Comparative Study of Methods of Civic Training. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1931.
- Civic Education in the United States. New York: Scribner, 1934.
See also
In Spanish: Charles Edward Merriam para niños
