Richard M. Valelly
Professor of Political Science
Swarthmore College
Ph: 610-328-8099
Email: rvalell1@swarthmore.edu
Professor of Political Science
Swarthmore College
Ph: 610-328-8099
Email: rvalell1@swarthmore.edu
..the miracle of democracy is that conflicting political forces obey the results of voting. People who have guns obey those without them. Incumbents risk their control of governmental office by holding elections. Losers wait for their chance to win office. Conflicts are regulated, processed according to rules, and thus limited. This is not consensus, yet not mayhem either. Just limited conflict; conflict without killing. Ballots are 'paper stones,' as Engels once observed.
Most Recent Book:
The Voting Rights Act
Prize-Winning Book:
The Two Reconstructions:
The Struggle for Black Enfranchisement
Recipient in 2005 of the J. David Greenstone Prize of the Politics and History Section of the American Political Science Association for the best book in politics and history published in the previous two years.
Recipient of the 2005 Ralph J. Bunche Award of the American Political Science Association, which honors excellence in books that treat ethnic and cultural pluralism in the United States.
Recipient of the 2005 V.O. Key, Jr. Award of the Southern Political Science Association, for the outstanding book on Southern politics published in 2004.