Charles Edward Merriam Jr. (1874–1953) was an American professor of political science at the University of Chicago, founder of the behavioral approach to political science, a trainer of many graduate students, a prominent intellectual in the Progressive Movement, and an advisor to several US Presidents. Upon his death, The New York Times called him "one of the outstanding political scientists in the country"."Dr. C.E. Merriam, Noted Educator," New York Times, January 9, 1953.
Early life and education Charles Merriam was born in Hopkinton, Iowa, on November 15, 1874,Manning, Historical Dictionary of American Propaganda, 2004, p. 182.Bishop and Gilbert, Chicago's Accomplishments and Leaders, 1932, p. 341.Kloppenberg and Fox, A Companion to American Thought, 1995, p. 449. to Charles Edward Merriam and Margaret Campbell Kirkwood Merriam. The Merriams traced their lineage to colonists who settled in Massachusetts in 1638.Reagan, Designing a New America: The Origins of New Deal Planning, 1890–1943, 2000, p. 55. The father moved to Iowa in 1855, and served with the 12th Iowa Infantry Regiment in the American Civil War. Charles and Margaret (both Presbyterians) were married in 1868.Reagan, Designing a New America: The Origins of New Deal Planning, 1890–1943, 2000, pp. 55–56. Charles E. Merriam Sr. owned a dry goods store and was postmaster and president of the school board in Hopkinton.Merry, History of Delaware County, Iowa, and Its People, 1914, p. 519. Charles Jr.'s elder brother was John C. Merriam (who became a noted paleontologist), and he had a younger sister, Susan Agnes Merriam.Mark, Preserving the Living Past: John C. Merriam's Legacy in the State and National Parks, 2005, p. 193.
Merriam attended public school in Hopkinton.Sawyers, Chicago Portraits: Biographies of 250 Famous Chicagoans, 1991, p. 172. He graduated from Lenox College in 1893 (his father was a trustee of the school),Reagan, Designing a New America: The Origins of New Deal Planning, 1890–1943, 2000, p. 56. taught school for a year, and then returned to college to receive his Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Iowa in 1895. He received his master's degree in 1897 and Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1900 from Columbia University. He studied in Paris and Berlin in 1899 while completing his PhD. Among his mentors from whom he adopted much of his early political thought were Frank Johnson Goodnow, Otto von Gierke, and James Harvey Robinson.Reagan, Designing a New America: The Origins of New Deal Planning, 1890–1943, 2000, p. 57.
He married Elizabeth Hilda Doyle (of Constable, New York) in 1900.Pope, et al., Merriam Genealogy in England and America, 1906. pp. 294–95.
Career Academic career and contributions Merriam joined the faculty at the University of Chicago in 1900 as the first member of the political science faculty. He authored A History of American Political Theories in 1903, a notable analysis of American political movements which strongly supported the emerging Progressive movement. He moved up quickly in the department, reached the rank of full Professor in 1911, and served as chairman of the department of political science from 1911 until his retirement. From 1907 to 1911, he served as chairman of the College of Commerce and Administration (the precursor to the Booth School of Business).Reagan, Designing a New America: The Origins of New Deal Planning, 1890–1943, 2000, p. 60.
Merriam significantly influenced the discipline of political science in the United States during his years in academia. As two political scientists noted in their study of the discipline in 1985, "Merriam's hand can be seen in virtually every facet of modern political science."Seidelman and Harpham, Disenchanted Realists: Political Science and the American Crisis, 1884–1984, 1985, p. 109. "As much as any single scholar during this period, Merriam set the standard for how American democracy should be studied within the academy" was the assessment of Merriam's thinking on the discipline by another political scientist in 2008.Pearson, "Introduction to the Transaction Edition," in Merriam, A History of American Political Theories, 2008, p. xiii. The political scientist Gabriel Almond concluded, "The Chicago school is generally acknowledged to have been the founding influence in the history of modern political science, and Charles E. Merriam is generally recognized as the founder and shaper of the Chicago school."Almond, Ventures in Political Science: Narratives and Reflections, 2002, p. 70.
Merriam was a leading advocate of the use of data and quantitative analysis in the practice of political sciencePearson, "Introduction to the Transaction Edition," in Merriam, A History of American Political Theories, 2008, pp. xiii–xiv. (even though he himself had almost no training in mathematics or statistics),Smith, Social Science in the Crucible: The American Debate Over Objectivity and Purpose, 1918–1941, 1994, p. 84. and he founded the behavioralistic approach to political science.Pearson, "Introduction to the Transaction Edition," in Merriam, A History of American Political Theories, 2008, p. xxi; Rossini, Woodrow Wilson and the American Myth in Italy: Culture, Diplomacy, and War Propaganda, 2008, p. 114; Seidelman and Harpham, Disenchanted Realists: Political Science and the American Crisis, 1884–1984, 1985, p. 110.Seidelman and Harpham, Disenchanted Realists: Political Science and the American Crisis, 1884–1984, 1985, pp. 109, 110. Merriam "denied the utility of theory" and advocated instead a "practical" political science aimed at creating a more harmonious, democratic, and pluralistic society.Quoted from Smith, Social Science in the Crucible: The American Debate Over Objectivity and Purpose, 1918–1941, 1994, pp. 84, 86–87.Seidelman and Harpham, Disenchanted Realists: Political Science and the American Crisis, 1884–1984, 1985, p. 110. A corollary to this thinking was his "vision of social scientists as technical advisors to society's political leaders."Smith, Social Science in the Crucible: The American Debate Over Objectivity and Purpose, 1918–1941, 1994, pp. 84, 86.
Merriam also deeply influenced the administration of political science in academia. He assembled a faculty that represented some of the best scholars of the day, and he and the faculty produced some of the brightest political scientists of the next generation, creating a department that dominated the discipline for 30 years. His influence was such that the department's structure, personnel, and reputation largely did not survive his retirement in 1940. He also pushed the discipline to move away from European-style theoretical discussion and into actual research, and he established the first social science interdisciplinary research institutes in the United States. He was also a leader in pursuing private grants and foundation money as a means of funding this research. According to Harold Lasswell, Merriam also promoted use of concepts from psychology to the field of political science.Crick, The American Science of Politics, 2003, pp. 137–38.
Merriam was a critic of the states system in the United States. He argued that the states system was a problem for cities, as the state governments neither governed the cities nor allowed the cities to govern themselves.
Local political career Merriam was a member of the Chicago City Charter Convention of 1906.Reagan, Designing a New America: The Origins of New Deal Planning, 1890–1943, 2000, pp. 61–62. He was commissioned by the City Club of Chicago in 1906 to study Chicago's tax system, and later served as a vice president of that influential organization.Reagan, Designing a New America: The Origins of New Deal Planning, 1890–1943, 2000, p. 62. He served as a Chicago City Council alderman from the old 7th ward from 1909 to 1911,Ruble, Second Metropolis: Pragmatic Pluralism in Gilded Age Chicago, Silver Age Moscow, and Meiji Osaka, 2001, p. 239. winning office (in part) due to the success of his 1903 textbook. He served on two key committees (Crime and Finance), and also served on three important city commissions (City Expenditures, Harbor, and Waste). While serving on the Harbor Commission, he became acquainted with Frederic Delano, uncle of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
He left office in 1911 to run (unsuccessfully) as a Republican for Mayor of Chicago. His campaign manager was Harold Ickes. Although he won the Republican primary by a very wide margin, he narrowly lost the general election to Carter Harrison IVReagan, Designing a New America: The Origins of New Deal Planning, 1890–1943, 2000, pp. 62–63. Merriam and Ickes helped co-found the Illinois Progressive Party, and they supported Robert M. La Follette for president until Theodore Roosevelt defeated him for the Progressive Party nomination.Reagan, Designing a New America: The Origins of New Deal Planning, 1890–1943, 2000, p. 63. He campaigned for former President Theodore Roosevelt under the "Bull Moose" ticket in 1912. He again served as an alderman from the 7th ward from 1913 to 1917, albeit as an Independent rather than a Republican. In 1916, he established the Bureau of Public Efficiency, a private organization which helped establish many quasi-public corporations and organized the Chicago Park District. Merriam lost his bid for re-election as alderman after being defeated in the Republican primary by just five votes in 1917. He unsuccessfully ran again for mayor in 1919, losing the Republican primary to incumbent William Hale Thompson.Bukowski, Big Bill Thompson, Chicago, and the Politics of Image, 1998, p. 3.Pegram, Partisans and Progressives: Private Interest and Public Policy in Illinois, 1870–1922, 1992, p. 204.
Federal service
Charles E. Merriam was an advisor to several presidents, and had a lengthy career in federal service. In 1911, President William Howard Taft offered him a seat on the Commission on Economy and Efficiency, a body established under the authority of the Civil Appropriations Act of 1910 to study the administration of the executive branch, but Merriam declined."The President's Commission on Economy and Efficiency," American Political Science Review, November 1911, pp. 626–28. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked him to serve on the newly formed Tariff Commission (now the United States International Trade Commission), but again he declined federal service.Schnietz, "The 1916 Tariff Commission: Democrats' Use of Expert Information to Constrain Republican Tariff Protection," Business and Economic History, Fall 1994, pp. 176–80.