Setting the Stage for Disciplinary Transformations: Riker, McKenzie, and the Case of the University of Rochester

Abstract

This article offers a historical reconstruction of the birth and shaping of two research communities at the University of Rochester, that of economists and that of political scientists. Starting from the late 1950s, the arrival at Rochester of the renowned mathematical economist Lionel W. McKenzie and, later, of the innovative political scientist William H. Riker transformed this university into a leading research institution in economics and political science. The simultaneous presence of Riker and McKenzie at Rochester introduces a “local dimension” in this story, especially since Riker's aim was to convert political science into a theory-driven, highly formal discipline, which he labeled “positive political theory,” apparently along similar lines as the postwar mathematical revolution in economics, of which McKenzie was one of the main characters. This article tries to assess the existence, direction, and effects of this “local” element in the case of Rochester.