Thomas Ferguson

Thomas Ferguson (born 1949) is an American political scientist and author who writes on politics and economics, often within a historical perspective. He is best known for his Investment Theory of Party Competition, described in detail in his 1995 book Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-driven Political Systems. Biography Ferguson obtained his Ph.D. from Princeton University before teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Texas, Austin. He later moved to the University of Massachusetts Boston where he is now Emeritus Professor of Political Science. Ferguson is a member of the advisory board for the Institute for New Economic Thinking where he is Director of Research, and was also a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. Alongside his academic work Ferguson has also contributed widely to popular media. He has been a contributing editor at The Nation and a contributing writer to The Huffington Post. He is also a contributing editor at AlterNet. Investment theory of party competition