Austin Ranney

J. Austin Ranney (1920–2006) was an American political scientist and expert on political parties in the United States.

He served as president of the American Political Science Association in 1974–1975, and also served as managing editor of the American Political Science Review, and was a Guggenheim fellow (in 1974), and a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (1976–85). He was politically a Democrat.

He created the Ranney Index, and is also noted for his work on preselection in British parliamentary elections (1965).

His influences included Elmer Eric Schattschneider and Angus Campbell, while his Ph.D. students include Douglas W. Rae.