Lucian Pye (19211October 21—September 5, 2008) is an American political scientist, a famous sinologist and a professor at MIT. Born in Fenzhou City, Shanxi Province, China. His research mainly focuses on the special role of cultural differences in the political modernization of third world countries, and he is considered as the earliest practitioner and advocate of the concept of political culture. It has a great influence on several generations of American political scientists.