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STEPHEN SKOWRONEK

Author of The Adaptability Paradox: Political Inclusion and Constitutional Resilience. The book asks: “how adaptable is the American Constitution?” and “why, after a long history of adaptations, have we had such a hard time accommodating a fully inclusive polity in a stable and responsive set of governing arrangements?”  

Stephen Skowronek is the Pelatiah Perit Professor of Political and Social Science at Yale University.  In 2019, he served as the Wynant Visiting Professor at the Rothermere American Institute, Balliol College Oxford.  He has also been a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and he held the Chair in American Civilization at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.  His most recent book, The Adaptability Paradox: Political Inclusion and Constitutional Resilience (2025), examines the democratization of the Constitution and the political and institutitonal difficulties encountered in adjusting a fully inclusive polity. 

Skowronek’s reseach has focused on American national institutions and American political development. He has written extensively on the American presidency and the executive branch.  His publications include Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic: The Deep State and the Unitary Executive  (with John Dearborn and Desmond King), The Policy State: An American Predicament (With Karen Orren), Building a New American State: The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities, 1877-1920 ,  The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to Bill Clinton,  The Search for American Political Development (with Karen Orren), and Presidential Leadership in Political Time: Reprise and Reappraisal (third edition 2020). Among other activities, he was co-founder of the journal Studies in American Political Development, which he co-edited between 1986 and 2007, and he provided the episode structure and thematic content for the PBS miniseries: The American President (Kunhardt Productions).

Contact (203) 432-5272 stephen.skowronek@yale.edu

https://www.amazon.com>shop>theadaptabilityparadox

: https://press.chicago.edu/ucp/books.book/chicago/A/bo256018846.html