Guillermo O'Donnell facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Guillermo O'Donnell
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Guillermo Alberto O'Donnell Ure
February 24, 1936 Buenos Aires, Argentina
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| Died | November 29, 2011 (aged 75) Buenos Aires, Argentina
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| Alma mater | University of Buenos Aires Yale University |
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| Academic advisors | Robert A. Dahl |
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Guillermo Alberto O'Donnell Ure (born February 24, 1936 – died November 29, 2011) was an important Argentine political scientist. He studied how different countries are governed, especially in Latin America. He spent most of his career in Argentina and the United States. His ideas greatly helped us understand authoritarianism (when one person or a small group has all the power) and democratization (how countries become democracies). He also wrote a lot about democracy and the role of the state. His brother is Pacho O'Donnell.
Contents
About Guillermo O'Donnell
Early Life and Education
Guillermo Alberto O'Donnell Ure was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His family had roots in Ireland. He studied law at the University of Buenos Aires and became a lawyer in 1958 when he was 22.
He was active in student politics, even serving as a leader for university student groups in Buenos Aires. Later, in 1963, he worked for a short time as a national Vice-Minister of Interior in Argentina. But he mainly focused on being a lawyer and teaching law at universities in Buenos Aires.
Studying Politics in the United States
In 1968, O'Donnell went to Yale University in the United States to study political science. He earned his master's degree in 1971. He started writing a very important book there, Modernization and Bureaucratic-Authoritarianism (1973). This book became famous and led to many discussions about Latin American politics. Even though he published this book, he didn't get his Ph.D. until much later, in 1987, after writing a new paper.
Return to Argentina and Important Research
After his master's, O'Donnell returned to Buenos Aires. He taught at universities and worked as a researcher. He helped start a research center called CEDES in 1975. This was a difficult time in Argentina, with a lot of political violence. CEDES became a place where people could still think and talk openly about politics.
In 1978, O'Donnell started a big research project with another scholar, Philippe C. Schmitter. They studied how countries in Southern Europe and Latin America changed from authoritarian rule to democracy. This project led to a very important book called Transitions from Authoritarian Rule. Prospects for Democracy (1986). Many famous scholars of democracy were part of this project.
Working in Brazil and the United States
In late 1979, O'Donnell left Argentina again, this time for Brazil. He worked at research centers there until 1983. Then, he moved to the United States. From 1983 to 2009, he taught at the University of Notre Dame. This university became his main academic home for 26 years. He also directed an international studies institute there.
Global Influence and Later Years
Throughout his career, O'Donnell was a leader in many professional groups. He was president of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) and vice-president of the American Political Science Association (APSA). He also taught as a visiting professor at many universities around the world, including University of Michigan, University of California, Berkeley, University of Cambridge, and University of Oxford.
He also worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the 2000s. He helped write important reports about democracy in Latin America.
O'Donnell returned to Buenos Aires in 2009. He continued to be active in academics, joining the National University of General San Martín (UNSAM). He started a research center there in 2010. Sadly, he was diagnosed with cancer and passed away on November 29, 2011, at the age of 75. He was buried in the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. He is survived by his wife, Gabriela Ippolito-O'Donnell.
Awards and Recognitions
Guillermo O'Donnell received many honors for his important work:
- He was named a "Distinguished Citizen of the City of Buenos Aires" in 2007.
- He received the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Prize from the International Political Science Association (IPSA) in 2006.
- He won the Kalman Silvert Award in 2003, which is the highest honor from the Latin American Studies Association (LASA).
- He received honorary doctorates from universities.
- He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1995.
- The Latin American Studies Association created an award and lecture series named after him: the Guillermo O’Donnell Democracy Award and Lectureship.
- The International Political Science Association (IPSA) also has a Guillermo O’Donnell Award for Latin-American Scholars.
Guillermo O'Donnell's Research
O'Donnell was a key thinker about authoritarianism (rule by a small, powerful group) and democratization (the process of becoming a democracy). He created new ideas in political science, like "bureaucratic authoritarianism," "horizontal accountability," and "delegative democracy." His most famous work is Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies (1986), which he wrote with Philippe C. Schmitter.
Understanding Bureaucratic Authoritarianism
O'Donnell's book Modernization and Bureaucratic Authoritarianism (1973) looked at why democracies failed in South America in the 1960s. He explained that a new type of authoritarian rule appeared. It was run by modern experts and professional military groups, not just traditional strong leaders. He called this "bureaucratic authoritarianism." This idea helped explain what happened in countries like Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay.
He argued that this new type of rule came from political problems caused by how countries tried to industrialize. He showed that in South America, industrialization sometimes led to this new authoritarianism, not democracy. This idea started a big discussion among scholars about how economic growth affects politics.
Studying Transitions to Democracy
Later, O'Donnell's research focused on how authoritarian rule ends and how countries become democracies. His book Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies (1986), written with Philippe Schmitter, was very important.
They suggested that moving to democracy depends on the choices of different groups of people. These groups included those who supported the old authoritarian government and those who opposed it. This book became a guide for many scholars studying how democracies are formed. It was also read by political activists who were working to bring democracy to their own countries.
The Quality of Democracy
From the 1990s onward, O'Donnell studied what makes a democracy work well. He warned against thinking that all new democracies would follow the same path as older Western democracies. To show the unique challenges in Latin American democracies, he came up with the idea of "delegative democracy." This is a type of democracy where elected presidents have a lot of power. He also talked about "horizontal accountability," which means that different parts of the government can check each other's power.
His later work looked at problems in many Latin American democracies, like weak rule of law (laws not being followed fairly) and citizens not having enough power. His final book, Democracy, Agency, and the State (2010), stressed how important the government and its institutions are for a strong democracy.
Selected Publications
Books
- O’Donnell, Guillermo, Democracy, Agency and the State: Theory with Comparative Intent (Oxford University Press, 2010)
- O’Donnell, Guillermo, Dissonances: Democratic Critiques of Democracy (University of Notre Dame Press, 2007)
- O’Donnell, Guillermo, Jorge Vargas Cullell, and Osvaldo Iazzetta (eds.), The Quality of Democracy. Theory and Applications (University of Notre Dame Press, 2004).
- O’Donnell, Guillermo, Counterpoints: Selected Essays on Authoritarianism and Democratization (University of Notre Dame Press, 1999)
- Transitions from Authoritarian Rule. Prospects for Democracy 4 Vols. (edited with Philippe Schmitter and Laurence Whitehead) (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986)
- O’Donnell, Guillermo, Modernization and Bureaucratic-Authoritarianism: Studies in South American Politics (Institute of International Studies, University of California, 1973)
See also
In Spanish: Guillermo O'Donnell para niños
- Transitology
- Julio Cotler
- Alfred Stepan
