Ware, Alan 1949-

PERSONAL:

Born February 16, 1949. Education: University of Oxford, M.A., D.Phil.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, Manor Road Bldg., Manor Rd., Oxford OX1 3UQ, England. E-mail—alan.ware@worc.ox.ac.uk; alan.ware@politics.ox.ac.uk.

CAREER:

Writer, educator. University of Oxford, Worcester College, Oxford, England, professor of politics, CUF University Lecturer, and tutorial fellow in politics, 1990—; previously worked at the University of Warwick, England.

WRITINGS:

The Logic of Party Democracy, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1979.

The Breakdown of Democratic Party Organization, 1940-1980, Clarendon Press (Oxford, England), 1985.

Citizens, Parties, and the State: A Reappraisal, Polity Press (Cambridge, England), 1987, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1988.

(Editor) Charities and Government, Manchester University Press (New York, NY), 1989.

Between Profit and State: Intermediate Organizations in Britain and the United States, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1989.

(Editor, with Robert E. Goodin) Needs and Welfare, Sage Publications (London, England), 1990.

(With Andrew Reeve) Electoral Systems: A Comparative and Theoretical Introduction, Routledge (New York, NY), 1992.

Political Parties and Party Systems, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(Editor) Democracy and North America, Frank Cass (Portland, OR), 1996.

(Editor) The United States, Dartmouth (Brookfield, VT), 1997.

(Editor, with Peter Burnell) Funding Democratization, Manchester University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

The American Direct Primary: Party Institutionalization and Transformation in the North, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

The Democratic Party Heads North, 1877-1962, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to various academic journals and compilations. Member of editorial boards for Party Politics, Democratization, and Government and Opposition.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer and educator Alan Ware graduated from the University of Oxford with both a master's degree and a doctorate. Ware has taught at the University of Warwick in Warwick, England, and has since moved on to join the faculty of his alma mater. He serves as a professor of politics at Worcester College, as well as a CUF Lecturer and a Tutorial Fellow in Politics. Beyond his academic duties, Ware is on the editorial board of a number of publications, including for Party Politics, Democratization, and Government and Opposition, and contributes to various periodicals and journals. He has written a number of books on politics, particularly the American political system, as well as on social policies and organizations such as welfare and charities, including The Logic of Party Democracy, The Breakdown of Democratic Party Organization, 1940-1980, Citizens, Parties, and the State: A Reappraisal, Between Profit and State: Intermediate Organizations in Britain and the United States, Electoral Systems: A Comparative and Theoretical Introduction, which he wrote with Andrew Reeve, The American Direct Primary: Party Institutionalization and Transformation in the North, and The Democratic Party Heads North, 1877-1962.

Citizens, Parties, and the State takes a look at the role of political parties in different countries, including the United States and Western Europe, as well as in nations where a single political party maintains total control over the political fate of the country. He analyzes the idea of democracy, and discusses which of these systems actually qualify to fall under that definition. In addition, he considers the future of these various nations, and reflects on possible political futures based on both past and present circumstances and adherence to the democratic ideal. In a review for Foreign Affairs Online, John C. Campbell found Ware's work to be a "carefully structured and sometimes original study."

Between Profit and State looks at a wide range of organizations that, while not operated on a for-profit basis, are also not officially part of the state. Ware includes a number of organizations in this in-between realm, including churches, charities, political interest groups, private universities, research foundations, hospitals, and many others, specifically addressing these organizations in both Great Britain and the United States over a period of centuries. Over the course of the book, Ware attempts to determine whether these types of intermediary organizations are in fact necessary if a democracy is going to thrive. He also questions whether this type of in-between organization also exists between other major institutions, such as between the state and business. Ultimately, he determines that, despite some promising evidence to the contrary, in the case of this secondary question, there is no such intermediate organization in existence. Regarding the primary question, he analyzes a number of organizations, but space makes it impossible for him to be thorough on any one area, and, as Brian Gratton noted in a review for the Business History Review, not all of Ware's material is historically accurate or appropriate for his examples. Gratton commented: "Add to similar historical weaknesses a deadening style and a penchant for providing trivia, … and readers face heavy going."

In Political Parties and Party Systems, Ware analyzes the components of the contemporary political party system, and the theories behind the use of this type of political structure. He goes into detail, using as examples the political party systems of the United States, Germany, France, Japan, and Great Britain. He looks at each country within the confines of separate sections, headed "Parties," "Party Systems," and "Moving Toward Government." Gordon Smith, in a review of the book for West European Politics, commented that "Ware has the happy knack of making party theory appear simple—or at last digestible—without over-simplification." He went on to note that the book prompted some arguments regarding Ware's choice of examples, as the European model of party politics differs from that of Japan or the United States, and some critics found that these differences made for confusion. Smith, however, concluded that Ware's effort is "an important addition to the available literature, a lucid and reliable textbook that will be widely used."

Ware's The American Direct Primary analyzes the United States' electoral system where primaries are held prior to an election in order to determine who will be the candidate from each of the political parties. In the course of his discussion, he traces the history of the American political parties, and also uncovers the way in which the ballot was developed, all of which is related. He delves into a wealth of historical material, including original sources, and finds party leadership, many of whom were legislators and governors, were behind these developments. The need to involve the states fairly in the various voting and law-making process also came into play. Jonathan Barnstein, in a review for the Political Science Quarterly, remarked: "What makes this book so absorbing is that Ware studies the details and explores ways in which politicians may have goals that are separate from those of the party as an institution while remaining party loyalists."

In The Democratic Party Heads North, 1877-1962, Ware takes a look at the voting system in the United States, analyzing the reasons for changes in the way the country's population tends to vote in different regions. Historically, it was assumed that voters had evolved in their views or in the party to which they showed their primary allegiance, but over time that appears to have changed, and Ware discusses the reasons behind this. He has researched the voting process extensively, using historical presidential election records along with those for congress and certain governorships, looking at the role of the Electoral College as well. He tracks the changes of any significance to the various voting trends and attempts to determine their causes. Samuel C. Patterson, reviewing for History: Review of New Books, remarked that "Ware's argument constitutes a major challenge to the ways in which American political scientists have interpreted the basis for electoral change." He concluded: "This book is an interesting, challenging, and resourceful study."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Acta Sociologica, fall, 1992, Eero Carroll, review of Needs and Welfare.

American Political Science Review, September, 1991, Leonard Freedman, review of Between Profit and State: Intermediate Organizations in Britain and the United States, p. 1067.

Business History, July, 1990, Michael E. Rose, review of Between Profit and State, p. 183.

Canadian Journal of Political Science, March, 1989, Geoffrey Lambert, review of Citizens, Parties, and the State: A Reappraisal, p. 191; March, 1990, Harvey G. Simmons, review of Between Profit and State, p. 168; June, 1997, Mildred A. Schwartz, review of Democracy and North America, p. 375.

Choice, May, 1996, review of Political Parties and Party Systems, p. 1552; July 1, 2003, E.C. Dreyer, review of The American Direct Primary: Party Institutionalization and Transformation in the North, p. 1989; October, 2006, M. Coulter, review of The Democratic Party Heads North, 1877-1962, p. 377.

Comparative Politics, October, 1990, Kay Lawson, review of Citizens, Parties, and the State, p. 105; October, 1990, Kay Lawson, review of Political Parties and Party Systems, p. 105.

Contemporary Sociology, September, 1990, Robert Bell, review of Between Profit and State, p. 678; January, 1992, Mary Ruggie, review of Needs and Welfare, p. 39.

Election Law Journal, summer, 2003, Howard L. Reiter, review of The American Direct Primary.

Ethics, July, 1981, Morris P. Fiorina, review of The Logic of Party Democracy, p. 679.

Foreign Affairs, December 22, 1988, John C. Campbell, review of Citizens, Parties, and the State, p. 173.

Government and Opposition, spring, 1992, Vernon Bogdanor, review of Electoral Systems: A Comparative and Theoretical Introduction; summer, 1996, Michael Laver, review of Political Parties and Party Systems.

History: Review of New Books, spring, 2007, Samuel C. Patterson, review of The Democratic Party Heads North, 1877-1962.

Journal of American History, September, 1986, Herbert S. Parmet, review of The Breakdown of Democratic Party Organization, 1940-1980, p. 521.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, summer, 2007, Ballard C. Campbell, review of The Democratic Party Heads North, 1877-1962.

Journal of Politics, August, 1989, Robert Harmel, review of Citizens, Parties, and the State, p. 773.

Journal of Social Policy, January, 1991, Edwin Griggs, review of Between Profit and State, p. 153.

Parliamentary Affairs, April, 1993, Neil Gavin, review of Electoral Systems, p. 267.

Political Quarterly, April 1, 1989, Mark Wickham-Jones, review of Citizens, Parties, and the State, p. 255.

Political Science Quarterly, summer, 1990, Ardith Maney, review of Between Profit and State; winter, 2003, Jonathan Barnstein, review of The American Direct Primary.

Political Studies, June, 1990, Michael Moran, review of Between Profit and State, p. 380; December, 1991, D.S. King, review of Needs and Welfare, p. 797.

Prairie Schooner, summer, 1990, review of Between Profit and State.

Public Administration, summer, 1990, Roy Wilkie, review of Charities and Government.

Public Interest, fall, 1989, Leslie Lenkowsky, review of Between Profit and State.

Reference & Research Book News, December, 1989, review of Charities and Government, p. 17.

Social Forces, September, 1990, review of Between Profit and State, p. 348.

Social Science Quarterly, September, 1989, Clifton McCleskey, review of Citizens, Parties, and the State, p. 794.

West European Politics, April, 1998, Gordon Smith, review of Political Parties and Party Systems, p. 205.

ONLINE

Cambridge University Press Web site,http://www.cambridge.org/ (February 6, 2008), author profile.

Foreign Affairs Online,http://www.foreignaffairs.org/ (February 6, 2008), John C. Campbell, review of Citizens, Parties, and the State.

Oxford Alumni Association Web site,http://www.oxalumny.org/ (February 6, 2008), author profile.

Oxford University Department of Politics and International Relations Web site,http://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/ (February 6, 2008), faculty profile.