Maurice Duverger is first of all a scholar who gave several generations of students a taste for political science research. His work on the strategic analysis of institutions, which today it is sometimes fashionable to underestimate, remains of great importance. It is characterized by several seminal intuitions, including his two most celebrated: one dealing with the impact of electoral systems on party systems, which has become known as "Duverger?s Law" (or Laws), the other involving the (debatable) concept of semi-presidential regime. The impact of his work has led to greater autonomy for the discipline of political science as well as to its greater institutionalization.