Strategic Decisions That Molded Los Angeles: Could They Be Made Today?

James Q. Wilson

Dr. James Q. Wilson has enjoyed a long storied career in the public policy arena. From 1961 to 1987, he taught political science at Harvard University, where he was the Shattuck Professor of Government. He was the James Collins Professor of Management and Public Policy at UCLA from 1985 until 1997. He is the author or co-author of fourteen books, the most recent of which are The Marriage Problem: How Our Culture Has Weakened Families (Harper Collins, 2002), Moral Judgment (Basic Books), and the Moral Sense (Free Press). His others include American Government, Bureaucracy, Thinking About Crime, Varieties of Police Behavior, Political Organizations, and Crime and Human Nature (with Richard J. Herrnstein). In addition he has edited or contributed to books on urban problems, government regulation of business, and the prevention of delinquency among children. Many of his writings on morality and human character have been collected in On Character: Essays by James Q. Wilson. His textbook on America government is more widely used on University campuses than any other government textbook.

Dr. Wilson has served on a number of national commissions concerned with public policy. He was chairman of the White House Task Force on Crime in 1966, Chairman of the National Advisory Commission on Drug Abuse Prevention in 1972-1973, a member of the Attorney General’s Task Force on Violent Crime in 1981, a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board from 1985 to 1991, and a member of the board of directors of the Police Foundation form 1971-1993. He is currently chairman of the Board of Academic Advisors of the American Electric System, State Farm Mutual Insurance Company, and Protection One. He is also a trustee of the RAND Corporation.

In 1990 the American Political Science Association presented him with the James Madison Award for a career of distinguished scholarship, and in 1991-1992 he served as the association’s president. In 1994 he received the John Gaus Award for “exemplary scholarship in the fields of political science and public administration.”

He has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. Educated at the University of Redlands (A.B. 1952) and the University of Chicago (Ph.D. 1959). He has received honorary degrees from six universities (most recently, Harvard University).

At the time of his appointment at Pepperdine, Wilson was the president of the American Political Science Association. The Association presented to Wilson a “Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2001.