Caraley was born in New York City in 1932 and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School. He earned his B.A. from Columbia College summa cum laude in 1954 and a Ph.D. and M.Phil from Columbia University. While a student at Columbia Law School, he was elected to Law Review. He is married to Vilma Mairo Bornemann and has three children, James Christopher Caraley, David Andrew Caraley, and Anne Leslie Caraley.
Career and Research
Dr. Caraley was a founding director of Columbia University's Graduate Program in Public Policy and served as Chairman of the Barnard College Department of Political Science for thirty years. He has been Editor of the Political Science Quarterly for more than thirty-five years, a position he currently holds. He has published numerous books and articles on various aspects of American politics including city government, congressional policies toward cities, national security policy, as well as democratic political theory and ethics. In the field of national security policy, his publications include September 11, Terrorist Attacks, and U.S. Foreign Policy, The President's War Powers and The Politics of Military Unification, and The New American Interventionism. Caraley's other field of interest is "Democratic Political Theory and Ethics," in which he wrote an article "Elections and Dilemmas of American Democratic Governance," that was reprinted in Promise and Problems of Old and New Democracies, edited by Xiaobo Lü. The New YorkAcademy of Public Administration selected Caraley's article "Ending Welfare As We Know It: A Reform Still in Progress” as the "outstanding" article published in 2001. Caraley served as a naval officer during the Korean War.
Selected publications
'The Politics of Military Unification
Governing the City
Doing More With Less: Cutback Management in New York City
September 11, Terrorist Attacks, and U.S. Foreign Policy
American Hegemony: Preventive War, Iraq, and Imposing Democracy
EIGHT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS, 1980–2008: Dealignments, Brittle Mandates, and Possible Majority Realignment
Major Articles
"Washington Abandons the Cities"
"Dismantling the Federal Safety Net: Fictions versus Realities"
"Complications of American Democracy: Elections Are Not Enough"
“Three Trends Over Eight Presidential Elections, 1980–2008: Toward the Emergence of a Democratic Majority Realignment?”
