Areas of Interest: Social theory and comparative historical research, especially regarding state and politics and the political economy of development.
Dietrich Rueschemeyer is a Brown professor of sociology emeritus and Charles C. Tillinghast Jr. '32 Professor of International Studies emeritus. He currently works on state formation and historical antecedents of socioeconomic development.
He was one of the founders of Brown's Center for the Comparative Study of Development, which merged into the Watson Institute. From 1997 to 2002, Professor Rueschemeyer led the Institute's Political Economy and Development Program.
His books include Usable Theory: Analytic Tools for Social and Political Research (Princeton University Press, forthcoming in 2009); Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences (Cambribge University Press, 2003, co-edited with J. Mahoney); Participation and Democracy East and West: Comparisons and Interpretations (M. E. Sharpe, 1998, co-edited with M. Rueschemeyer and B. Wittrock); States, Social Knowledge, and the Origins of Modern Social Policies (Princeton University Press, 1996, co-edited with Th. Skocpol); Capitalist Development and Democracy (University of Chicago Press, 1992, co-authored with E. H. Stephens and J. D. Stephen); Power and the Division of Labour (Stanford University Press, 1986); and Bringing the State Back In (Cambridge University Press, 1985, co-edited with P.B. Evans and Th. Skocpol).
He received his doctorate in sociology at the University of Cologne. Before coming to Brown, he taught at the University of Cologne, Dartmouth College, and the University of Toronto. He also taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Free University of Berlin, and the Free University of Brussels.