Juan José Linz
Spanish sociologist and political scientist (1926–2013)
Juan José Linz Storch de Gracia (24 December 1926 – 1 October 2013) was a German-born Spanish sociologist and political scientist specializing in comparative politics. From 1961 he was Sterling Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Political Science at Yale University and later also an honorary member of the Scientific Council at the Juan March Institute. He is best known for his work on authoritarian political regimes and democratization.
Early life and education
Linz was born in Bonn, Germany in 1926. His mother, of Spanish origin, returned with him to Spain in 1932. He graduated with a degree in law and political science from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1947. He moved to New York in 1950 and was awarded a doctorate in sociology from Columbia University in 1959. He took classes with sociologists Robert K. Merton, Paul Lazarsfeld, Robert Staughton Lynd, and Kingsley Davis. He worked closely with Seymour Martin Lipset. He wrote a 900 page dissertation on "The Social Bases of West German Politics".
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q62478. VIAF identifies the subject as 108359529. The Library of Congress control number is n81149629. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1926, 2013, 1961 and 1932.
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This entry incorporates text from “Juan José Linz” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.