Ward Elliott (born August 6, 1937) is an American political scientist who is the Burnet C. Wohlford Professor of American Political Institutions at Claremont McKenna College (CMC) in California. Elliot has been a professor at CMC since 1968.
Education
Elliott has a Bachelor of Arts (1959), Master's degree and Doctorate of Philosophy (1968) from Harvard University, and a law degree (1964) from the University of Virginia.
Work
Elliott criticized the U.S. Supreme Court's record on voting reforms in his 1974 book, The Rise of Guardian Democracy, arguing that reform should be initiated by citizens through democratic processes, and not imposed from above by elites.
He researched market solutions to the smog problem in Los Angeles. He was president of the California Coalition for Clean Air from 1980 to 1986. Elliott drafted the economic-incentives of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Subsequent to his efforts, the number of first-stage smog-alert days declined from one day in three in the 1960s to only one day in 1997.
Elliott founded and led the Claremont Shakespeare Clinic from 1987 to 1994. The clinic used computers to analyze Shakespeare's writings, and published several papers on his and the Claremont Shakespeare Clinic's findings. His research addressed the Shakespeare authorship question. His results led him to dismiss the claims of 37 alternative authors of the Shakespeare canon and reject the authenticity of over 30 poems and plays of the Shakespeare Apocrypha.
Awards
- Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, 1973
- Roy C. Crocker Prize for Merit, Claremont McKenna College, 1984
- Presidential Award for Merit, Claremont McKenna College, 1999
Notes
External links
- Ward Elliott's home page at Claremont McKenna College
