Joseph LaPalombara, a distinguished comparative political scientist and a prominent figure in Yale's Department of Political Science for more than half a century, died on June 12 at Whitney Center in Hamden, Connecticut. He was 101.
He was the Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science and Management, Emeritus.
Born in Chicago to Italian immigrant parents, LaPalombara grew up in the "Little Italy" neighborhood of Chicago - in an area of poverty and violence, known for its ward heelers, machine politics, and the organized crime operation known as "the Syndicate" - where it was, as he said in his intellectual trajectory for Yale's Koerner Center, "universally understood that government was corrupt."
LaPalombara's path to academic distinction was anything but conventional. A mentor of his, known as "Philly the Horseplayer," who had the ability to win at cards, dice, and pool, introduced him to the Chicago Public Library and books. He left high school at 16 - he never did receive a degree - and worked in wartime factories before entering the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign through a wartime admissions program.
He made an immediate impact at U of I, graduating as president of his class with highest honors, membership in Phi Beta Kappa, and an early indication of the formidable intellect and determination that would define his life. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in political science from Princeton University in 1954, followed by a Fulbright year in Italy, a country that was a part of his heritage and would become central to both his scholarship and his affection.
After appointments at Oregon State and Michigan State, LaPalombara joined Yale in 1964. Here he chaired the Department of Political Science twice, directed the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, and played a role in the early development of what became the Yale School of Management. Over more than five decades, he helped shape the study of comparative politics at Yale and trained generations of students who went on to academic, governmental, and professional distinction.
LaPalombara's scholarly work spanned several fields. He was among the pioneers who helped establish comparative politics as a modern empirical discipline in postwar American political science. His early work on political parties, bureaucracies, and political development became foundational. "Political Parties and Political Development" (1966), which he co-edited with MIT political scientist Myron Weiner, remains a landmark in the field. He wrote extensively on interest groups, clientelism, political corruption, and the relationship between business and politics, bringing unusual analytic rigor to questions that crossed conventional disciplinary boundaries.
He was also a leading - some say the foremost - American scholar of modern Italy, which he studied, explained, critiqued, heralded, and deeply loved, and where he became well known in both its intellectual and political circles. His books on Italian politics - including "Democracy Italian Style" and "Italy: Fragmentation, Isolation, and Alienation" - offered accounts of the instability, complexity, and adaptability of the Italian political system. His expertise was recognized by the Italian Republic itself, which named him first a Knight and later Knight Commander of the Order of Merit.
LaPalombara's work ranged beyond the academy. He advised the U.S. government, major foundations, multinational corporations, and international organizations. From 1980 to 1981, he served at the U.S. Embassy in Rome as First Secretary and Director of its Cultural Section, a role that reflected the unusual breadth of his experience: at once scholar, diplomat, and public intellectual. He and his wife Constance LaPalombara, a painter, spent parts of five decades in Italy, returning on an annual basis so he could renew his intellectual and political connections and she could paint in the Umbria and Tuscany countryside.
A big personality, LaPalombara was equally at home discussing Machiavelli, Italian electoral systems, baseball, opera, and American politics. He was indefatigable and continued to teach a political science seminar long after he had formally retired. A colleague, meeting him once in a Yale parking lot, stopped to chat. Suddenly LaPalombara glanced at his watch and said he had to rush away - he was walking to the train station because he was taking his class to the United Nations. He was 94.
LaPalombara's wife predeceased him. He is survived by his three children from his first marriage to Lyda (Tidy) LaPalombara: Richard LaPalombara (Carol Ann Phelps), David LaPalombara (Robin Webb), and Susan LaPalombara (Marc Frohman); four granddaughters; and five great-grandchildren. A celebration of his life will be held in the fall.
