Colin John Crouch, FBA (born 1 March 1944) is an English sociologist and political scientist.

Colin Crouch is currently Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick and an External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.

[2] From 1995 to 2004 he was Professor of Sociology and chaired the department of Political Science at the European University Institute of Florence.

He is also an External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne.

It designates states that are conducted by fully operating democratic systems (elections are being held, governments fall and there is freedom of speech), but whose application is progressively limited.