Wolf Linder is Professor Emeritus of the University of Bern, where he was the director at the Institute of Political Science.

Before, he taught government and political science at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, the Universities of Lausanne and Constance. His main research areas were Swiss politics and the development of young democracies.

Linder served as a member of the Swiss National Science Foundation and of the Swiss Science Council. He was an expert for many Swiss authorities and for development agencies in Southeast Asia, Africa as well as in Central Europe.

Before entering his academic career, he was a member of the cantonal Parliament of the Canton of Thurgau and a substitute member of the Cantonal Court.