Michael Wallerstein

Michael Wallerstein (16 January 1951 – 7 January 2006) was a noted political scientist.

Wallerstein received his undergraduate education at the Stanford University, majoring in political science and graduating in 1974. He received his graduate training in political science at the University of Chicago. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1985, he was affiliated with UCLA. In 1994, he moved to Northwestern University, and finally moved to Yale University in 2004, where he was named as Saden Professor.

Wallerstein was awarded the Franklin L. Burdette Pi Sigma Alpha Award in 1985 for the best paper presented at the American Political Science Association's 1984 annual meeting, and he later served on the APSA executive council. In 2005, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Wallerstein's research concerned inequality in advanced industrial societies. In particular, he studied the impact of labor market institutions, such as systems of collective bargaining, as well as the politics of income redistribution, such as social insurance and affirmative action.