Gordon Smith: "Politics in Western Europe. A Comparative Analysis". Engelsk

Gordon Smith: "Politics in Western Europe. A Comparative Analysis". Engelsk

4th Edition. Heinemann Educational Books, London, 1983.

346 sider.

*** Gordon Smith obituary

Political scientist and LSE professor

Martin Lodge, The Guardian, Thursday 4 February 2010 17.58 GM

Gordon Smith, who has died aged 82, was professor emeritus of government at the London School of Economics (LSE) and a leading teacher and scholar of his generation of political scientists. He was a well-respected voice on comparative European politics, party systems and German politics, although his scholarship appreciated the history and culture of any country. In the classroom, Smith was a rogue. His heckling, challenging and irreverent teaching style inspired many to pursue academic careers.

His appointment to a lectureship at the LSE in 1972, at the age of 45, was based on his book Politics in Western Europe, published that year. Vincent Wright, then senior lecturer in French politics at the LSE, was enthusiastic about the book's careful cross-national comparison of institutions of 19 west European states. In the book, Smith moved the study of politics of European countries away from the description of major countries on a one-by-one basis to a truly comparative one, remaining sensitive to the particular features of each. It became a standard text, appearing in five editions.

Wright praised Smith's "mixture of protested innocence and deliberative provocative cynicism" and, in 1978, they established the academic journal West European Politics, after their launch of an innovative postgraduate programme of the same name at the LSE. Few academic journals were then interested in comparative European politics, especially in smaller European democracies.

The core of this journal a balance of comparative and theoretical approaches with the analysis of individual countries represented Smith's intellectual agenda. Gradually, West European Politics expanded its coverage to include European integration and central and eastern European countries.

Smith remained editor of West European Politics for the rest of his life, and brought in Klaus Goetz and Peter Mair as co-editors after Wright's death in 1999. Smith also co-founded the journal German Politics, and helped establish the European Political Science Research Consortium and the Association for the Study of German Politics (where he became honorary vice-president).

Born in London, Smith did military service in 1945. Being part of the occupation forces in Hamburg triggered his interest in Germany, and the study of politics. His undergraduate years at the LSE were followed by a spell in personnel management, a PhD in German politics from the LSE on a part-time basis (1964), a part-time degree in sociology (taken after his doctorate), and years of teaching at London North-East Polytechnic (now the University of East London), commuting from the family home in Bournemouth.

His ideas and provocations about German politics were prodded, encouraged and controlled by his German first wife, Dorothea. Dinners at their house usually turned into debates inspired by music, wine and cigars.

Smith despised meddling and had little time for internal LSE squabbles. He disliked the limelight, but lambasted the infamous July 1990 Chequers seminar on the German "national character" in a letter to the Times. Discussions had centred on whether Germans were dangerous. Smith regarded some of the views as ignorant and prejudiced.

After Dorothea's sudden death in 1994, Smith found happiness with his second wife, Anna, and they had a son, Thomas. Smith is survived by them, by Charlotte, his daughter from his first marriage, and four grandchildren. He also leaves behind a community of "Gordon alumni" who will miss his generosity, commanding intellect, puckish humour and deadpan putdowns for "fudgy concepts".

Gordon Smith, political scientist, born 16 September 1927; died 2 December 2009

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