Dr. Harold D. Clarke

An anonymous contribution created The University of Texas at Dallas supports the Ashbel Smith Professorship. Dr. Ashbel Smith was the first president of the UT System Board of Regents. He had a long and distinguished career in medicine, education and public service. During his term on the Board of Regents, Smith was dedicated to recruiting the best faculty members available and to developing a curriculum befitting a “university of the first class.” Smith became known as both the “father of Texas medicine” and the “father of The University of Texas.”chair.

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“Voters are smart enough to know they are not smart enough.”

In memory of Dr. Harold D. Clarke
July 27, 1943-January 11, 2022

Dr. Harold D. Clarke was a political scientist and research methodologist who received his PhD from Duke University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Western Ontario. Clarke was an internationally recognized expert on voting and elections. His research focused on electoral choice and the political economy of party support in Great Britain, the U.S. and Canada. His studies have been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Economics and Social Research Council (UK), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

He began his research career as a principal investigator for the Canadian National Election Study. In recent years, he has served as principal investigator for the 2001, 2005 and 2009-10 British Election Studies and the 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014 Political Support in America Studies. Other recent projects include the 2009 Political Support in Germany Study and the 2008 and 2011 Political Support in Canada Studies.

Clarke authored of numerous articles published in such journals as the American Journal of Political Science, the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly and Political Analysis.  He was also an author of several books including Performance Politics and the British Voter and Political Choice in Britain. His most recent book, Affluence, Austerity and Electoral Change in Britain, was published with Cambridge University Press in 2013.

Clarke was senior co-editor of Electoral Studies and former co-editor of Political Research Quarterly. Before joining UT Dallas, Clarke served as Regents Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of North Texas from 1998 to 2001. While there, he led recruiting initiatives and added a significant methodological training component to the department.

In 2009, he served as director of the Social and Economic Sciences Division at the National Science Foundation.  He was a founder of the new ICPSR-affiliated Workshops in Social Science Research methodology program at Concordia University in Montreal.