Overview
My work seeks to reimagine democratic ideals and practices in light of realistic assumptions about the dynamics of social inequality and political power.
Several articles have explicitly articulated and defended my practice-oriented approach. Others have applied that approach to questions of democratic theory, engaging research in political psychology, behavior, and institutions.
My recently published book (The Dispersion of Power) brings insights from these fields into conversation with both liberal and radical traditions of democratic thought, generating a critical realist theory of democracy.
Articles
2023. Whose Coordination? Which Democracy? On Antitrust as a Democratic Demand
Politics & Society 53(1): 364-386 (ungated)
2022. Sortition as Anti-Corruption: Popular Oversight against Elite Capture
American Journal of Political Science (published online 03/2022, open access)
summaries: DPIR press release, AJPS blog post, twitter thread
2022. Realism Against Legitimacy: For a Radical, Action-Oriented Political Realism
Social Theory and Practice 48(1): 29-60 (ungated)
2022. Preaching to the Choir? Rhetoric and Identity in a Polarized Age, w/ Rob Goodman
Journal of Politics 84(2): 511-524 (ungated)
2022. Intra-Party Democracy: A Functionalist Account, w/ Udit Bhatia
Journal of Political Philosophy 30(3): 347-369 (ungated)
2021. Fighting Power with Power: The Administrative State as a Weapon against Private Power
Social Philosophy and Policy 38(1): 220-43 (ungated)
2021. Beyond the Search for the Subject: An Anti-Essentialist Ontology for Liberal Democracy
European Journal of Political Theory 20(2): 208-231 (ungated)
2019. An Adversarial Ethics for Campaigns and Elections, w/ Isak Tranvik
Perspectives on Politics 17(4): 973-987 (ungated)
2018. The Power of the Multitude: Answering Epistemic Challenges to Democracy
American Political Science Review 112(4): 891-904 (ungated)
2018. What Makes a Political Theory Political? Comment on Waldron
Political Studies Review 16(3): 184-191 (ungated)
2018. Can Deliberation Neutralise Power?
European Journal of Political Theory 17(3): 257-279 (ungated)
— recognized by publisher as most cited article in volume 17 of EJPT
2017. When will a Darwinian Approach be Useful for the Study of Society?
Politics, Philosophy, and Economics 16(3): 259-281 (ungated)
2016. Between Critical and Normative Theory: Predictive Political Theory as a Deweyan Realism
Political Research Quarterly 69(2): 233-244 (ungated)
see my CV for a full list of scholarly publications, including book reviews, etc…
Media
Public Writing
2024. Democratic Disenchantment (essay adapted from The Dispersion of Power)
Boston Review (August)
2024. Would you sit on a jury to review government regulations? Citizen oversight panels could make this process more open and democratic
The Conversation (April)
2023. Two Fallacies of Democratic Design
Law and Political Economy Blog (July)
2019. Give Political Power to Ordinary People, with Michael Schulson
Dissent Magazine (July)
2019. How Should we Think about Democracy?
Law and Political Economy Blog (June)
2018. Political Theory as an Anti-Discipline
Humanities Futures (March)
— linked by Bookforum
Interviews
2024. Podcast interviews about The Dispersion of Power with New Books in Political Science, the Political Theory Review, the Governance Podcast, and the Political Philosophy Podcast (see book page for full details)
2024. The Dispersion of Power: Samuel Bagg’s Urgent Call to Redefine Democracy
Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies (March)
2020. Some Assembly Required
The Economist (September)
Videos
2024. Rescuing Democracy from Oligarchic Capture
Ohio State University (February)