Four American Party Leaders

Charles E. Merriam, an American political scientist, is generally regarded as the father of the behavioral movement in political science. He spent most of his career at the University of Chicago and played an active role in Chicago reform politics. He was also dedicated to interdisciplinary research and was a major founder of the Social Science Research Council in 1923. He was a member of the presidential committee that produced the monumental Recent Social Trends in the United States in 1933; during the Roosevelt administration, he took part in the work of several influential committees and boards.