The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …
See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.
List of the most influential people in Political Science,
#651
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski
#18558
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Godard , also known simply as PPK , is a Peruvian economist, public administrator, and former politician who served as President of Peru from 2016 to 2018. He served as Prime Minister of Peru and as Minister of Economy and Finance during the presidency of Alejandro Toledo. Kuczynski resigned from the presidency on 23 March 2018, following a successful impeachment vote and days before a probable conviction vote. Since 10 April 2019 he has been in pretrial detention, due to an ongoing investigation on corruption, money laundering, and connections to Odebrecht, a public work...
Go to Profile#652
Peter Edelman
#11234
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
Peter Benjamin Edelman is an American legal scholar. He is a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, specializing in the fields of poverty, welfare, juvenile justice, and constitutional law. He worked as an aide for Senator Robert F. Kennedy and in the Clinton Administration, where he resigned to protest Bill Clinton's signing the welfare reform legislation. Edelman was one of the founders and president of the board of the New Israel Fund.
Go to Profile#653
Avraham Sela
#19776
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
Avraham Sela is an Israeli historian and scholar on the Middle East and international relations. Education and Career Sela studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, gaining a BA in 1971, an MA in 1974 and a PhD in 1986. He currently serves as the A. Ephraim and Shirley Diamond Professor of International Relations and a senior research fellow at the Harry S. Truman Institute, both at the Hebrew University.
Go to Profile#654
Dominic Lieven
#2441
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Dominic Lieven is an English research professor at Cambridge University and a Fellow of the British Academy and of Trinity College, Cambridge. Education Lieven was educated at Downside School, a Benedictine Roman Catholic boarding independent school in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, near Shepton Mallet in Somerset, followed by Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated top of the class of 1973 , and was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University in 1973/4.
Go to Profile#655
Walt Whitman Rostow
#47848
Overall Influence
#656
Gary Schmitt
#15511
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Gary James Schmitt is an American political scientist who is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Early life and education Schmitt graduated from the University of Dallas in 1974 with a B.A. in Politics and the University of Chicago in 1980 with a Ph.D. in Political Science.
Go to Profile#657
Timothy Mitchell
#12098
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Timothy P. Mitchell is a British-born political theorist and student of the Arab world. He is a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University. He was previously Professor of Politics at New York University.
Go to Profile#658
Erica Chenoweth
#32894
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (44 years)
Erica Chenoweth is an American political scientist, professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. They are known for their research work on non-violent civil resistance movements.
Go to Profile#659
Carlos Escudé
#13815
Overall Influence
1948 - 2021 (73 years)
Carlos Andrés Escudé Carvajal was an Argentine political scientist and author, who during the 1990s served as special advisor to foreign minister Guido di Tella. As such, he advised on Argentine foreign policy strategy vis-à-vis the Western powers particularly in the wake of the Falklands War.
Go to Profile#660
David D. Laitin
#19074
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
David D. Laitin is the James T. Watkins IV and Elise V. Watkins Professor of Political Science in the School of Humanities and Science at Stanford University. He is a comparative politics scholar who has written works on civil war, ethnic identity, culture and nationalism. He is known for his application of rational choice to the study of ethnic conflict, and for bridging a gap between ethnography and rational choice.
Go to Profile#661
Herman Jay Cohen
#31462
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (92 years)
Herman Jay "Hank" Cohen is an American diplomat who served as United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 1989 to 1993. Career Herman Jay Cohen, born in New York City on February 10, 1932, received a BA in political science from the City College of New York in 1953. He then joined the United States Army, serving until 1955. He received an MA in international relations from American University in 1962. He served in the Foreign Service as a consular officer, attaché, and political counselor until his appointment to the post of United States Ambassador to Gambia and Senegal in 1977, serving until 1980.
Go to Profile#662
Peter Gourevitch
#39413
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Peter Gourevitch is a political scientist who is known for his research in international relations and comparative politics. He is professor emeritus of political science at the University of California, San Diego.
Go to Profile#663
Randall Stone
#20988
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
Randall Warren Stone is an American political scientist and a professor at the University of Rochester, notable for his studies on international political economy, international relations, and Russian and European politics.
Go to Profile#664
Shantha Sinha
#29052
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Shantha Sinha is an Indian anti-child labour activist. She is the founder of Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation, popularly known as MV Foundation , and is a professor in the Department of Political science in Hyderabad Central University. She headed the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights for two consecutive terms ; The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights was set up in March 2007 under the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005, an Act of Parliament . Sinha was its first chairperson. She was awarded the civilian honour of Padma Shri by the Govern...
Go to Profile#665
Susan Stokes
#21317
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
Susan Carol Stokes is an American political scientist and the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor in the Political Science department of the University of Chicago, and the faculty director of the Chicago Center on Democracy. Her academic focus is on Latin American politics, comparative politics, and how democracies function in developing countries. Stokes is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022.
Go to Profile#666
Stephen Bright
#15153
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Stephen B. Bright is an American lawyer known for representing people facing the death penalty, advocating for the right to counsel for poor people accused of crimes, and challenging inhumane practices and conditions in prisons and jails. He has taught at Yale Law School since 1993 and has been teaching at the Georgetown Law Center since 2017 . In 2016, he ended almost 35 years at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, first as director from 1982 to 2005, and then as president and senior counsel from 2006 to 2016.
Go to Profile#667
Rorden Wilkinson
#18743
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Rorden Wilkinson FAcSS FRSA is a British academic and author. He is Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Professor of International Political Economy at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. He was previously Pro Vice-Chancellor and Professor of International Political Economy at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor , Professor of Global Political Economy, and a Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory at the University of Sussex; and Professor of International Political Economy and Research Director of the Brooks World Poverty Institute at the University of Manchester.
Go to Profile#668
Peter B. Evans
#20859
Overall Influence
1944 - 2012 (68 years)
Peter Evans is an American political sociologist who is Faculty Fellow in International and Public Affairs at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University and Professor of Sociology emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.
Go to Profile#669
Denise Dresser
#12626
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
Denise Eugenia Dresser Guerra is a Mexican writer, and university professor. She is currently a faculty member of the Department of Political Science at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, columnist in Proceso magazine, editorial writer for the newspaper Reforma, and participates in "La Hora De Opinar" TV Forum. She was awarded the Legion of Honor of the French Republic in the rank of Knight, the highest distinction awarded by the French government to citizens and foreigners, for her defense of freedom of expression and human rights. She has been named by Forbes magazine as one of t...
Go to Profile#670
Nicholas Onuf
#24996
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Nicholas Onuf is an American scholar. Onuf is currently Professor Emeritus of International Relations at Florida International University and is on the editorial boards of International Political Sociology, Cooperation and Conflict, and Contexto Internacional. He is a constructivist scholar of international relations. He has been credited with coining the term "Constructivism."
Go to Profile#671
Ashutosh Varshney
#39844
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Ashutosh Varshney is an Indian-born political scientist and academic. He is currently the Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Brown University, where he also directs the Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. Varshney previously taught at Harvard University and the University of Michigan.
Go to Profile#672
Javad Tabatabai
#15729
Overall Influence
1945 - 2023 (78 years)
Seyyed Javad Tabatabai was an Iranian philosopher and political scientist. He was Professor and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Tehran. Biography Tabatabai, an Iranian Azeri, was born on 14 December 1945 in Tabriz, Iran. His father was a merchant in Bazaar of Tabriz. After pursuing studies in theology, law and philosophy in Tabriz and Tehran, he earned his PhD in political philosophy from the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, with a dissertation on Hegel's political philosophy.
Go to Profile#673
Douglas W. Rae
#30281
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (85 years)
Douglas Whiting Rae is an American political scientist. He is the Richard Ely Professor of Political Science and Management at Yale University. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and served as Chief Administrative Officer of the City of New Haven, Connecticut in 1990–1991. He has contributed to the BBC, The New Republic, and The New York Times.
Go to Profile#674
Fritz G. A. Kraemer
#20815
Overall Influence
1908 - 2003 (95 years)
Fritz Gustav Anton Kraemer was an American military educator and advisor. He was Senior Civilian Advisor to the Army Chief of Staff. He is often credited with discovering Henry Kissinger, with whom he maintained a close relationship, and Alexander Haig.
Go to Profile#675
Carolyn Gomes
#37402
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
The Honourable Carolyn Gomes, O.J. is a Jamaican human rights activist. She is also the co-founder and now the past executive director of Jamaicans for Justice. Gomes resigned as the executive director of Jamaicans for Justice due to controversy surrounding the JFJ introducing sex education material into a number of private children's homes in Jamaica that was deemed inappropriate. Since 2014 Carolyn Gomes has been serving as the executive director of Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition .
Go to Profile#676
Cynthia McClintock
#31726
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
Cynthia McClintock is a professor at George Washington University and an author. She serves on the Center for International Policy's board of directors. From 1994–1995 she was the president of the Latin American Studies Association. She is an expert on Peruvian relations with the U.S., Andean affairs, the drug trade, and the Tupac Amaru rebel group.
Go to Profile#677
Hisashi Owada
#6541
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (92 years)
Hisashi Owada is a Japanese former jurist, diplomat and law professor. He served as a judge on the International Court of Justice from 2003 until June 7, 2018, and was President of the Court from 2009 to 2012. He is the father of Empress Masako and the father-in-law of the incumbent Emperor of Japan, Naruhito.
Go to Profile#678
Michael Randle
#20194
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (91 years)
Michael Randle is an English peace campaigner and researcher known for his involvement in nonviolent direct action in Britain and also for his role in helping the Soviet spy George Blake escape from a British prison.
Go to Profile#679
Boris Nemtsov
#20149
Overall Influence
1959 - 2015 (56 years)
Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov was a Russian physicist, liberal politician, and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. Early in his political career, he was involved in the introduction of reforms into the Russian post-Soviet economy. In the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin, he was the first governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast . Later he worked in the government of Russia as Minister of Fuel and Energy , Vice Premier of Russia and Security Council member from 1997 to 1998. In 1998, he founded the Young Russia movement. In 1998, he co-founded the coalition group Right Cause and in 1999, he co-formed Union of Right Forces, an electoral bloc and subsequently a political party.
Go to Profile#680
Tim Dunne
#18091
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
Timothy J. Dunne is a British scholar of international relations, currently serving as Provost and Senior Vice-President at the University of Surrey. He is also an Emeritus Professor at the University of Queensland, where he was previously Deputy Provost and Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Go to Profile#681
R. A. W. Rhodes
#24484
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Roderick Arthur William Rhodes , usually cited as R. A. W. Rhodes, is a British professor of political science. Rod Rhodes is professor of government at the University of Southampton and director of the Centre for Political Ethnography. He is also emeritus professor of politics at the University of Newcastle . Previously, he was: Professor of Government at Griffith University ; director of the UK Economic and Social Research Council’s ‘Whitehall Programme’ ; distinguished professor of political science at the Australian National University ; and director of the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University .
Go to Profile#682
Vojislav Koštunica
#22237
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Vojislav Koštunica is a Serbian former politician who served as the last president of FR Yugoslavia from 2000 to 2003 and as the prime minister of Serbia from 2004 to 2008. Koštunica won the 2000 Yugoslav presidential election as a candidate of a broad alliance Democratic Opposition of Serbia , which led to overthrow of Slobodan Milošević and the withdrawal of international sanctions against Yugoslavia. He strictly opposed cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and his party left the coalition government in protest at the decision to extradite Slobodan Milošević to the ICTY.
Go to Profile#683
Victor Cha
#26121
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
Victor D. Cha is an American academic, author and former national foreign policy advisor. He is a former Director for Asian Affairs in the White House's National Security Council, with responsibility for Japan, North and South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. He was George W. Bush's top advisor on North Korean affairs. He currently holds the D. S. Song-Korea Foundation Chair in Asian Studies and is the Director of the Asian Studies program in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Cha is also senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studi...
Go to Profile#684
Karl Rove
#9929
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Karl Christian Rove is an American Republican political consultant, policy advisor, and lobbyist. He was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush administration until his resignation on August 31, 2007. He has also headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives.
Go to Profile#685
Anton Shekhovtsov
#22860
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (46 years)
Anton Volodymyrovich Shekhovtsov is a Ukrainian political scientist, academic and writer. He is known for his writings on the European radical right and in particular its connections to Russia. He is the editor of the Explorations of the Far Right book series at ibidem-Verlag and sits on the board of the open access journal Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies.
Go to Profile#686
Michael J. Piore
#23651
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Michael Joseph Piore is an American economist and professor of economics and political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research centers on labor economics, immigration, and innovation. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1984.
Go to Profile#687
Sedat Laçiner
#16925
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (52 years)
Sedat Laçiner is a Turkish academic specialist on the Middle East and International Relations, with particular reference to Turkish foreign policy and rector of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University .
Go to Profile#688
Adom Getachew
#14578
Overall Influence
Adom Getachew is an Ethiopian-American political scientist. She is the Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Political Science and the College at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination.
Go to Profile#689
Itamar Rabinovich
#6975
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
Itamar Rabinovich is the president of the Israel Institute . He was Israel's Ambassador to the United States in the 1990s and former chief negotiator with Syria between 1993 and 1996, and the former president of Tel Aviv University . Currently he is professor emeritus of Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University, distinguished global professor at New York University and a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Go to Profile#690
Scott Sagan
#25927
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Scott Douglas Sagan is the Caroline S.G. Munro Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and co-director of Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation . He is known for his research on nuclear weapons policy and nuclear disarmament, including discussions of system accidents, and has published widely on these subjects.
Go to Profile#691
Eckhard Jesse
#17810
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Eckhard Jesse is a German political scientist. Born in Wurzen, Saxony, he held the chair for "political systems and political institutions" at the Technical University of Chemnitz from 1993 to 2014. Jesse is one of the best known German political scholars in the field of extremism and terrorism studies. He has also specialized in the study of German political parties and the German political system.
Go to Profile#692
Kai Arzheimer
#26814
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (55 years)
Kai Arzheimer is a German professor of Political Science at the University of Mainz and a visiting Fellow at the Department of Government at the University of Essex. He writes on right-wing extremism and his publications include "Politikverdrossenheit" and "Die Wähler der extremen Rechten 1980 - 2002".
Go to Profile#693
Alexander L. George
#27989
Overall Influence
1920 - 2006 (86 years)
Alexander L. George was an American behavioral scientist. He was the Graham H. Stuart Professor of Political Science Emeritus at Stanford University. He made influential contributions to political psychology, international relations, and social science methodology.
Go to Profile#694
Evelyn Farkas
#22934
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
Evelyn Nicolette Farkas is an American national security advisor, author, and foreign policy analyst. She is the current executive director of the McCain Institute, a nonprofit focused on democracy, human rights, and character-driven leadership.
Go to Profile#695
Ezekiel Emanuel
#6324
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Ezekiel Jonathan "Zeke" Emanuel is an American oncologist, bioethicist and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He is the current Vice Provost for Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy. Previously, Emanuel served as the Diane and Robert Levy University Professor at Penn. He holds a joint appointment at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Wharton School and was formerly an associate professor at the Harvard Medical School until 1998 when he joined the National Institutes of Health...
Go to Profile#696
Peter van Onselen
#20400
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (48 years)
Peter van Onselen is an Australian political academic, author, political journalist and commentator. He is a contributing editor at The Australian newspaper. Between 2010 and 2017, he hosted several programs at Sky News Australia. Since December 2018 he has served as Network 10's political editor and a co-host of The Project.
Go to Profile#697
Alan Abramowitz
#42961
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Alan Ira Abramowitz is an American political scientist and author, known for his research and writings on American politics, elections in the United States, and political parties in the United States.
Go to Profile#698
Betty Glad
#23859
Overall Influence
1927 - 2010 (83 years)
Betty Glad was an American political scientist who specialized in the American presidency and American foreign policy. Her first work on Charles Evans Hughes led to a nomination for a Pulitzer Prize.
Go to Profile#699
Eric Kaufmann
#9339
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Eric Peter Kaufmann is a Canadian professor of politics at Birkbeck, University of London. He is a specialist on Orangeism in Northern Ireland, nationalism, and political and religious demography. He has authored, co-authored, and edited multiple books on these subjects.
Go to Profile#700
Majid Khadduri
#8484
Overall Influence
1909 - 2007 (98 years)
Majid Khadduri was an Iraqi–born academic. He was founder of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies Middle East Studies program, a division of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C. Internationally, he was recognized as a leading authority on a wide variety of Islamic subjects, modern history and the politics of the Middle East. He was the author of more than 35 books in English and Arabic and hundreds of articles.
Go to Profile