Bio: (1919–2010) American sociologist. Philip Selznick received his PhD from Columbia University and then spent a short time teaching at the University of Minnesota and the University of California, Los Angeles. He moved to the University of California, Berkeley in 1952, where he was the founding Chair of the Center for Jurisprudence and Social Policy and the Center for Law and Society.

Selznick's research focused on the topics of organizations, institutions, law, ideals, and moral philosophy. In TVA and the Grass Roots (1949), he presents a theory of bureaucracy which identifies modes of dominant authority co-optation, and, on the other hand, ways of resistance and counteraction against the centralizing authoritative tendencies.  

In The Organizational Weapon (1952), Leadership in Organization (1957), and Law, Society and Industrial Justice (1980), Selznick addresses the issue of legality as an incompletely institutionalized ideal designed to limit arbitrariness. He describes legality as a practical norm that can be realized to different degrees. According to Selznick, when a part of the law falls short of certain ideal standards, it may be considered deficient in legality, but it nevertheless remains part of the legal system.

Main works

"An Approach to a Theory of Bureaucracy", in American Sociological Review (1943);

"Foundations of the Theory of Organization", in American Sociological Review (1948);

The Organizational Weapon (1952);

TVA and the Grass Roots: a Study in the Sociology of Formal Organization (1949); 

Leadership in Organization (1957);

The Organizational Weapon: a Study of Bolshevik Strategy and Tactics (1960); 

Law, Society, and Industrial Justice (1969);

Law and Society in Transition (1976);

Law, Society and Industrial Justice (1980);

The Moral Commonwealth (1992);

"Institutionalism 'Old' and 'New'", in Administrative Science Quarterly (1996);

Communitarianism and Citizenship (1998).