Deutsch, Karl (1912–1992)

One of the foremost U.S. political scientists of the post-World War II period was Karl Deutsch, whose work helped expand the frontiers of knowledge of politics and political development. The creation of a network of scholars, a lifelong dedication to teaching, a commitment to data-based research, and the publication of numerous academic works were among Deutsch's major contributions to the field of social sciences.

Karl Wolfgang Deutsch was born on July 21, 1912, to Maria Scharf Deutsch and Martin Deutsch in Prague. Karl had a brilliant academic record from German Staatsrealgymnasium, the German University, and Charles University in Prague, where he took a law degree. An outspoken opponent of Nazism, he and his wife Ruth Slonitz could not remain in Nazi-dominated Czechoslovakia of the post-Munich era, so they emigrated to the United States in 1938. Deutsch enrolled at Harvard for further studies and joined government service after the U.S. entry into World War II. As a member of the International Secretariat of the San Francisco Conference of 1945, he participated in the creation of the United Nations. He began his teaching career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Deutsch also worked on his doctoral dissertation, Nationalism and Social Communication, at Harvard and published scholarly articles. In 1952, he was appointed a full professor of history and political science at MIT. His teaching assignments spanned reputed institutions and universities in the United States and abroad. Deutsch was with the Center for Research on World Political Institutions at Princeton University; the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Palo Alto, California; the University of Chicago; and Yale University before becoming Stanfield Professor of International Peace at Harvard.

Deutsch's first major academic work was an empirical study of West Germany's revival after 1945. He used quantitative methods to try to test hypotheses in the social sciences. His book Nationalism and Social Communication: An Inquiry Into the Foundations of Nationality, based on his doctoral dissertation, was truly interdisciplinary. His model of nationalism was valuable for research on nation building and international integration. Deutsch collaborated widely with colleagues from many disciplines. In Political Community and the North Atlantic Area, Deutsch explained how the interaction between the elites and masses in the form of communications was vital in development of nationalism. His emphasis was more on community formation than on union of separate units. [Page 187]Deustch is best known as a systems theorist popular in political science in the 1950s and 1960s. More mathematical than many other systems theorists, he applied cybernetics and the study of communications and controls to politics using simulation models and system dynamics in verifying different propositions pertaining to social, political, and economic problems. The application of mathematical analysis opened new ground in the study of politics. His best-known work is The Nerves of Government, which examined communication and control in political systems.