Frank Aarebrot

Frank Aarebrot

Frank Henrik Aarebrot (born 19 January 1947) is a Norwegian political scientist from Bergen. He is professor of comparative politics at the University of Bergen and adjunct professor of democracy development at the Örebro University. He regularly lectures at Institut des Sciences Politiques and at the Humboldt University. Aarebrot has written several books on the democratisation of Europe, following the fall of the Berlin Wall. In Norway Aarebrot is known as a political commentator.

Frank Aarebrot was the assistant of Stein Rokkan. Between 1969 and 1976, he studied at Yale University, the University of Michigan and received his cand.polit.-degree in comparative politics in 1976. Since 1977 he has been employed by the Institute of Comparative Politics at the University of Bergen.

While working as an observer at the presidential elections of Romania in 1990, Aarebrot was infected with a skeletal disease. He later had to have one of his legs amputated because of this.

Together with the Norwegian TV-comedian and sociologist Harald Eia and TV-comedians Bård Tufte Johansen and Kristopher Schau, Aarebrot tried to prove Pierre Bourdieus critic of Television, claiming that it's not an organ of information, but rather distraction: While Aarebrot and Bård Tufte Johansen led a normal-like TV-discussion about the ideas of Pierre Bourdieu, Kristopher Schau was licking dipmix off of the remaining parts of Aarebrots leg. This was meant to work as proof of Bordieus ideas, as the viewers most likely wouldn't remember the actual discussion.

Aarebrot has open political sympathies with the Norwegian Labour Party.

Aarebrot usually holds one of the top spots in the rankings of most quoted scientists in Norwegian media.