Honorary Doctorates for Renate Mayntz and Fritz W. Scharpf

Renate Mayntz and Fritz W. Scharpf, emeritus directors at the MPIfG, have been awarded honorary doctorates by the Hertie School. Its president, Cornelia Woll, praised the two directors for inspiring “generations of scholars and policymakers” with their research and shaping “how we think about our capacity to steer politics and society.” As a pioneer of sociology and organization studies, Renate Mayntz has contributed significantly to the understanding of complex systems and social change. Fritz W. Scharpf, a distinguished legal scholar and political scientist, is widely known for his analysis of institutional dynamics in federal systems and the European Union. Together they developed the theoretical foundations of actor-centered institutionalism in the 1980s and 1990s, an approach that gives insights into the dynamics necessary to bring about policy change and drive political, economic, and social developments. Renate Mayntz and Fritz Scharpf both continue to work at the MPIfG. The award ceremony took place on September 4 at the Hertie School in Berlin.