Philip Selznick

Philip Selznick Professor emeritus of law and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, died on June 12 in his home in Berkeley. He was 91. Services will be private. "The Berkeley community lost one of its post-war giants. His scholarship and leadership helped shape the theory and sociology of organizations and transformed the social study of law," said David Lieberman, professor at UC Berkeley School of Law. Selznick showed that organizations are living institutions imbued with cultural and informal characteristics that can constrain and also enhance rationality," said Lauren Edelman, associate dean of the Jurisprudence and Social Policy (JSP) Program- Selznick is also credited with helping transform the study of law by developing a new type of pedagogy, one that combines elements of traditional jurisprudence concerning the nature of law with social science. "The resulting mixture of institutional realism, social theory and normative inquiry provided a fresh approach to the understanding of legality and the rule of law," according to Lieberman. Born on January 8, 1919 in Newark, N.J, Selznick earned his undergraduate degree from the City College of New York. As a student he led a radical Trotskyite youth organization together with colleagues such as Irving Kristol, Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer and others. He received his MA and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University after serving in the U.S. Army from 1943-46. Two years later, he published "TVA and the Grass Roots," a renowned sociological study of the Tennessee Valley Authority. This book and subsequent work including "The Organizational Weapon" and "Leadership in Administration" were later described by Selznick as "preoccupied with the conditions and processes that frustrate ideals or, instead, give them life and hope." After five years at U.C.L.A.. Selznick joined UC Berkeley in 1952. He chaired the Department of Sociology from 1963-67 amid heated debates and political tensions generated by the Free Speech Movement. In 1965 his strong defense of student free speech and protest appeared in Commentary magazine as a pointed exchange with follow professor Nathan Glazer who viewed the protestors as extremists. Selznick founded the Center for the Study of Law and Society and served as director from 1968-72. The Center became a top think tank and destination for international scholars pursuing interdisciplinary research. In 1977 Selznick joined the Berkeley Law faculty and in 1978 became founding chair of its Jurisprudence and Social Policy doctoral program, the first and for many years the only Ph.D. program based in a major U.S. law school. The program maintains a graduate fellowship program named in his honor. "He was the principal theoretician," according to former Berkeley Law dean Sanford Kadish, " of a type of legal education program that has been emulated by major universities all over the globe". Selznick received numerous awards and citations, including most recently the lifetime achievement award from the Law and Society Association and the distinguished career award from the American Sociological Association. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a lifetime scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center. Since retiring, Selznick continued to publish such important works as "The Moral Commonwealth," "The Communitarian Persuasion," and mostly recently, "A Humanist Science: Values and Ideals in Social Inquiry." He will be greatly missed by his colleagues and friends, and by his wife, Doris Fine, her children and grandchildren. Survivors include his daughter, Margaret Ledwith, and her family. Donations in his memory may be made to the University of California JSP Program, 2240 Piedmont Ave., Berkeley, CA 94720.