Albert Somit

Biographic Data

ID245687
NAMEAlbert Somit
GIVEN NAMESAlbert
FAMILY NAMESomit
SIGNATURESOMIT A
AFFILIATIONSUniversity at Buffalo, State University of New York
VERIFIEDNo
TOTAL WORKS62
TOTAL CITATIONS97
AUTHOR COUNT59
EDITOR COUNT3
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1948
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2019
H-INDEX5

  • Biology and Politics. Recent Explorations: Papers Presented at the Conference Held in Paris, January 6-8 1975

    Albert SomitBOOKBiology and Politics. Recent…2019

  • Handbook of Biology and Politics

    Steven A Peterson, Albert SomitBOOKHandbook of Biology and Politics2017

  • Biology and Politics

    A Peterson, Steven A Peterson et al.BOOKBiology and Politics2011

    This volume examines cutting edge research in the study of biology and politics. Following an introduction from the editors it is divided into two main sections. The first part of the book explores the linkage between evolution, genetics and politics with initial chapters on abandoned baby legislation, a model of action and norms, and the biopolitics of primates. The next four chapters have a special focus on the use of twin studies to study poli…

  • Biology and Politics: The Cutting Edge

    Albert SomitBOOKBiology and Politics2011

  • What hath biopolitics wrought

    Open AccessAlbert SomitARTICLEPolitics and the Life Sciences2011Cited by: 1References: 2

    Although there may be some disagreement about the exact date, I think it safe to say that the biopolitics movement was launched in the 1960s. Now, a half century later, it may be appropriate to pose the rather obvious, if somewhat delicate, question: What has biopolitics contributed to political science? Here, I will try to persuade you that a biopolitical approach may have yielded answers to a couple of the most debated issues in political philo…

  • Evolution, public goods, and the state

    Albert Somit, A Peterson et al.ARTICLEPolitics and the Life Sciences2007

    The articles in this issue attempt to extend the minirevolutions into yet another field, the field of evolutionary biology, by demonstrating (1) the crucial role that public goods may have played in the evolution of sharing behavior and collective identity, not exclusively, but primarily of the human sort and (2) how public goods contribute to the explanation of evolved social behaviors, in particular, those behaviors that are precursors of the f…

  • The Failure of Democratic Nation Building: Ideology Meets Evolution

    Open AccessAlbert Somit, A Peterson et al.BOOKFailure of Democratic Nation…2005

    Throughout history authoritarian governments have outnumbered democratic ones to an overwhelming degree. Even today, true democracies are an exception. In this book, Somit and Peterson argue that the

  • Counterpoint

    Open AccessAlbert Somit, Naomi Black et al.ARTICLEPerspectives on Politics2005

    To be considered for publication in the Counterpoint section of the journal, letters must be relatively short (fewer than 1,000 words). Submit letters directly to [email protected]. The editors will choose which letters to publish. All letters may be lightly edited for style and length

  • Darwinism, Dominance, and Democracy: A Reaffirmation

    Open AccessAlbert Somit, A Peterson et al.ARTICLEPolitics and the Life Sciences2001Cited by: 1References: 3

    So that the reader can better adjudge possible disagreements, we would like to begin by stating, at the very outset, the thesis argued in our book, Darwinism, Dominance, and Democracy (Somit and Peterson, 1997). As Peter Corning correctly reports in his commentary (2000), we contend that “the most important reason for the rarity of democracy is that evolution has endowed our species, as it has other primates, with a predisposition for hierarchica…

  • Born to Rebel: The Science of Birth Order

    Open AccessAlbert Somit, A Peterson et al.ARTICLEPolitics and the Life Sciences2000

    In accordance with the principle of full disclosure, we believe we should inform the reader about several matters. First, as associate book review editors of the Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems , we recommended for publication (but did not commission) a review by Frederic Townsend of Born to Rebel (Townsend, 1997). That recommendation was accepted, and the review appeared in the journal's Volume 2, Issue 2 in 1997

  • Rational Choice and Biopolitics: A (Darwinian) Tale of Two Theories

    Open AccessAlbert Somit, A Peterson et al.ARTICLEPS Political Science & Politics1999Cited by: 2References: 9

    In a recent paper (Somit and Peterson 1998), we discussed the relative successes and failures of “biopolitics” since it emerged as an identifiable subfield within political science during the mid-1960s (see also Degler 1991). Toward that end, we addressed two questions. First, we assessed the extent to which biopolitics has established itself organizationally as a field within the parent discipline. Second, and substantively surely more important…

  • Darwinism, Dominance, and Democracy: The Biological Bases of Authoritarianism

    Albert Somit, A Peterson et al.BOOKDarwinism, Dominance, and Democracy1997

    Somit and Peterson seek to explain two apparently contradictory yet well-established political phenomena: First, throughout human history, the vast majority of political societies have been authoritarian. Second, notwithstanding this pattern, from time to time, democracies do emerge and some even have considerable stability. A neo-Darwinian approach can help make sense of these observations. Humans—social primates—have an inborn bias toward autho…

  • Ratings and Rankings: Some Important But Slighted Aspects

    Open AccessAlbert SomitARTICLEPS Political Science & Politics1996References: 1

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  • Multiple Submissions: Worth Considering

    Open AccessAlbert Somit, A Peterson et al.ARTICLEPS Political Science & Politics1995References: 1

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  • Birth order as a factor in presidential selection and performance

    Open AccessAlbert Somit, A Peterson et al.ARTICLEThe Social Science Journal1994Cited by: 3References: 6

    Birth order has long been assumed to have an impact on people's behavior, with first borns normally believed to differ from later borns in achievement motivation, and the like. This essay explores the relationship between birth order and presidential selection and performance. Generally, an analysis of American presidents suggests that birth order has rather little impact on the selection of a president and on the performance of a president once …

  • Birth Order and British Prime Ministers: A Second Look

    Open AccessAlbert Somit, Alan Arwine et al.ARTICLEPolitical Studies1994Cited by: 5References: 2

  • Award Recipients

    Open AccessG Bonham, Michael Hansen et al.ARTICLEPS Political Science & Politics1993

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  • Older Women: Health and Political Behavior

    A Peterson, Steven A Peterson et al.ARTICLEWomen & Politics1993Cited by: 1

    This paper addresses one of the challenges that older women face-poor health. The focus of this paper is the extent to which health status affects the political behavior of older women. To enrich the analysis, the relationship between health status for older males is examined as well. Health status has modest effects on both sexes. Most interesting, better health directly affects greater political participation among older women. It has only an i…

  • Birth Order and Political Behavior: Clearing the Underbrush

    Open AccessAlbert Somit, A Peterson et al.ARTICLEInternational Political Science…1993Cited by: 5References: 28

    Birth order has been implicated in a wide variety of human behaviors. One aspect of this is the contention that those who are first born differ in important respects politically from later born people. Actual findings from empirical research are surveyed to see the extent to which birth order affects both mass and elite political behavior. The meta-analysis suggests no clear pattern of findings supportive of the posited birth order-politics linka…

  • The Dynamics of Evolution: The Punctuated Equilibrium Debate in the Natural and Social Sciences

    T Ingold, Albert Somit et al.ARTICLEMan1993Cited by: 10

  • From Professor of Political Science to Professor Emeritus

    Open AccessAlbert SomitARTICLEPS Political Science & Politics1992

  • Darwinism Redux: An Alternative Explanation

    Open AccessAlbert SomitARTICLEPolitics and the Life Sciences1992

    As he makes clear in his preface, Degler sets himself two tasks: first, to describe the decline and, then, the subsequent revival of Darwinism in American social thought; second, to explain why these two changes occurred. He has accomplished both objectives in exemplary fashion. Still, there are grounds for modest disagreement in both areas

  • Older women: Health and political behavior

    A Peterson, Steven Peterson et al.ARTICLEWomen & Politics1992

  • Humans, Chimps, and Bonobos: The Biological Bases of Aggression, War, and Peacemaking

    Open AccessAlbert SomitARTICLEJournal of Conflict Resolution1990Cited by: 4References: 6

  • Biopolitics in 1988: Year of the Newcomer

    Open AccessAlbert Somit, A Peterson et al.ARTICLEPolitics and the Life Sciences1989References: 19

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