Samuel L. Popkin

Who is Samuel L. Popkin?

Samuel L. Popkin is a noted political scientist who teaches at the University of California, San Diego. He received his Ph.D. from M.I.T. in 1969. Popkin has played a role in the development of rational choice theory within political science. He is also noted for his work as a pollster.

Popkin has published in unusually diverse areas. His most recent book is The Candidate: What it Takes to Win the White House. Earlier he wrote The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns and co-authored Issues and Strategies: The Computer Simulation of Presidential Campaigns. He also co-edited Chief of Staff: Twenty-Five Years of Managing the Presidency.

When he was assistant professor of Government, in 1972, he was jailed for a week, for his refusal to answer questions before a grand jury investigating the Pentagon Papers case, during a hearing before the Boston's Federal District Court. The Faculty Council later passed a resolution condemning the government's interrogation of scholars on the grounds that "an unlimited right of grand juries to ask any question and to expose a witness to citations for contempt could easily threaten scholarly research."