Ian Shapiro
Biographic Data
| ID | 265200 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ian Shapiro |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ian |
| FAMILY NAME | Shapiro |
| SIGNATURE | SHAPIRO I |
| AFFILIATIONS | Yale University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 79 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 667 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 70 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 19 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1981 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
The political economy of fiscal responsibility
The Disparate and Durable Effects of Mail Voting Restrictions
On Fertile Ground
Designing Democratic Institutions
As the principles and practices of democracy continue to spread ever more widely, it is hard to imagine a corner of the globe into which they will not eventually penetrate. But the euphoria of democratic revolutions is typically short-lived, and usually followed by disgruntlement and even cynicism about the actual operation of democratic institutions. It is widely accepted that democracy is a good thing. However democrats have much work to do in …
The New Authoritarianism in Public Choice
Much early public choice theory focused on alleged pathologies of democratic legislatures, portraying them as irrational, manipulable, or subject to capture. Recent years have seen the emergence of a new strand of argument, reaffirming the old skepticism of legislatures but suggesting that transferring power from legislatures to chief executives offers a solution. Just as the earlier prescriptions ignored the pathologies of the agencies empowered…
Ethnicity and Group Rights
Within Western political philosophy, the rights of groups has often been neglected or addressed in only the narrowest fashion. Focusing solely on whether rights are exercised by individuals or groups misses what lies at the heart of ethnocultural conflict, leaving the crucial question unanswered: can the familiar system of common citizenship rights within liberal democracies sufficiently accommodate the legitimate interests of ethnic citizens. Sp…
Theory and Practice
With 16 original essays all published here for the first time, Theory and Practice focuses on the relationship between philosophical tradition and everyday life in the Western tradition. In this comprehensive volume, Ian Shapiro and Judith Wagner DeCew have gathered contributions from some of the most influential thinkers of our generation including Cass Sunnstein, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Martha Nussbaum, Jeremy Waldron, and Kent Greenwalt. What ar…
Preface to the Veritas paperback Edition
Note on the Text
Introduction to the Veritas Paperback Edition
Chapter 17 Democracy and Inequality
Chapter 16 Continuing the Journey?
Preface to the Veritas Paperback Edition
Note on the Text
Political Parties and Public Policy
Failures of representation and democracy cannot be solved by weakening parties. Rather, democratic success requires political competition among strong parties that can identify and defend the broad interests of the community as a whole. The fragmentation of political parties reduces spending on public goods, and weakening party discipline diminishes political accountability.
Political Contingency
History is replete with instances of what might, or might not, have been. By calling something contingent, at a minimum we are saying that it did not have to be as it is. Things could have been otherwise, and they would have been otherwise if something had happened differently. This collection of original essays examines the significance of contingency in the study of politics. That is, how to study unexpected, accidental, or unknowable political…
Bretton Woods Agreements
Bretton Woods Agreements
Bretton Woods Agreements
Reply to Ackerly, Boyte, Fishkin, Levine, and Warnke
Here I reply to critiques of my 2016 book Politics against Domination set forth by Brooke Ackerly, Harry Boyte, James Fishkin, Peter Levine, and Georgia Warnke. Among the themes addressed are different ways of managing power relations in public and civil institutions; the relevance of lived experiences of those involved in power relations for evaluating them; the efficacy of social movements as vehicles for lasting social change; the advantages a…
Responsible Parties
Responsible Parties
How popular democracy has paradoxically eroded trust in political systems worldwide, and how to restore confidence in democratic politics In recent decades, democracies across the world have adopted measures to increase popular involvement in political decisions. Parties have turned to primaries and local caucuses to select candidates; ballot initiatives and referenda allow citizens to enact laws directly; many places now use proportional represe…
Charter of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Responsible Parties
Charter of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
The most powerful military alliance in history, NATO shaped the geopolitical contours of the Cold War and continues to structure the contemporary international system. The NATO agreement is reprinted here with speeches and essential historical documents concerning the alliance’s founding and subsequent evolution. Accompanying essays by major scholars discuss debates about NATO’s evolving governance, its role in nuclear politics, and its appropria…
Two treatises of government
From the Publisher: This is a new revised version of Dr. Laslett's standard edition of Two Treatises. First published in 1960, and based on an analysis of the whole body of Locke's publications, writings, and papers. The Introduction and text have been revised to incorporate references to recent scholarship since the second edition and the bibliography has been updated
Problems, Methods, and Theories in the Study of Politics, or What's Wrong with Political Science and What to Do About it
Our mandate is to engage in navel-gazing about the condition of political theory. I confess that I find myself uncomfortable with this charge because I think political theorists have become altogether too narcissistic over the past half-century. Increasingly, they have come to see themselves as engaged in a specialized activity distinct from the rest of political science-either a bounded subdiscipline within it or an alternative to it. Political …
The State of Democratic Theory
What should we expect from democracy, and how likely is it that democracies will live up to those expectations? In The State of Democratic Theory , Ian Shapiro offers a critical assessment of contemporary answers to these questions, lays out his distinctive alternative, and explores its implications for policy and political action. Some accounts of democracy's purposes focus on aggregating preferences; others deal with collective deliberation in …
South Africa's Negotiated Transition
The Flight from Reality in the Human Sciences
The Difference that Realism Makes
Collusion in Restraint of Democracy
Recent calls to inject substantial doses of deliberation into democratic politics rest on a misdiagnosis of its infirmities. Far from improving political outcomes, deliberation undermines competition over proposed political programs–the lifeblood of healthy democratic politics. Moreover, institutions that are intended to encourage deliberation are all too easily hijacked by people with intense preferences and abundant resources, who can deploy th…
Optimal Deliberation
Three Ways to be a Democrat
Exploration de la question des rapports entre les demandes de justice et les pratiques de la politique democratique, esquisse d'une reponse
On Non-domination
My aim here is to defend a view of non-domination as providing a better basis for justice than the going alternatives. I differentiate it from two kinds of alternatives: those whose proponents reject my claim that non-domination is the bedrock of justice and those who agree with me but understand non-domination differently than I do. The first group divides into partisans of equality, on the one hand, and of freedom, on the other. Their arguments…
Pathologies revisited
More than three decades after its advent in political science, rational choice theory has yet to add appreciably to the stock of knowledge about politics. In Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory we traced this failure to methodological defects rooted in the aspiration to come up with universal theories of politics. After responding to criticisms of our argument, we elaborate on our earlier recommendations about how to improve the quality of rati…
Transforming Power Relationships
Chronic communal conflicts often embody prisoner's dilemmas. Both communities prefer peace to war. Yet neither trusts the other, viewing the other's gain as its loss, so potentially shared interests often go unrealized. Achieving positive-sum outcomes from apparently zero-sum struggles requires a particular kind of risk-embracing leadership. To succeed leaders must (a) see power relations as potentially positive-sum, (b) strengthen negotiating ad…
Gross Concepts in Political Argument
POLITICAL THEORISTS OFTEN fail to appreciate that any claim about how politics is to be organized must be a relational claim involving agents, actions, legitimacy, and ends. If they did, they would see that to defend the standard contending views in many of the controversies that occupy them is silly. In what follows I work through a number of debates about the nature of right, law, autonomy, utility, freedom, virtue, and justice, showing this to…
On the Second Edition of Lukes' Third Face
In this article I argue for two propositions. The first is that Lukes has established the possibility of power's third face, but that the most interesting social science questions about it are empirical: How often does it operate and under what conditions? These are topics for empirical research, not armchair reflection. The second proposition I defend is that the most interesting normative questions about power are best thought of as questions o…
Elements of Democratic Justice
Definition d'une justice democratique fondee sur l'autogestion collective et sur l'institutionnalisation de l'opposition. L'A. mesure les implications de cette conception democratique de la justice sociale sur le fonctionnement de l'etat (mesures prises pour les biens publics, role du discours juridique dans l'argument pour la justice democratique
Resources, Capacities, and Ownership
Though the Earth, and all inferior Creatures be common to all Men, yet every Man has a Property in his own Person. This no Body has any Right to but himself. The Labour of his Body, and the Work of his hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever then he removes out of the State that Nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his Labour with, and joyned it to something that is his own, and thereby makes it his Property. It being by hi…
The State of Democratic Theory
I respond to Fishkin’s critique of my book The State of Democratic Theory (Princeton University Press 2003). I reiterate my defense of a competitive model of democracy geared to reducing domination, rather than Fishkin’s deliberative model that deploys structured discussion to enlighten mass preferences. In light of the literatures on framing effects and the value of mutually independent judgments, I question whether the procedures Fishkin recomm…
Choix rationnels et politique
Choix rationnels et politique. Pourquoi en savons-nous toujours aussi peu? Donald P. Green, Ian Shapiro. Cette critique de la contribution de la théorie des choix rationnels à la science politique, fondée sur une étude empirique, entend montrer que, à ce jour, les partisans de la méthodologie des choix rationnels ont peu apporté à notre connaissance de la vie politique. L'échec de ces théories est dû à un syndrome de déficiences méthodologiques r…
On Fertile Ground
Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration
Among the most influential writings in the history of Western political thought, John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration remain vital to political debates today, more than three centuries after they were written. The complete texts appear in this volume, accompanied by interpretive essays by three prominent Locke scholars. Ian Shapiro’s introduction places Locke’s political writings in historical and biographic…
Problems and Prospects for Democratic Settlements
Intense ethnic, racial, and religious violence led many to classify South Africa, Northern Ireland, and Israel/Palestine as intractable conflicts. Yet they diverged, with only South Africa achieving a lasting settlement. The authors explain why. The authors analyze them as a distinctive type of negotiated transition. The ancién regime is an imperfect democracy, subject to electoral constraints and legitimated by democratic principles that it viol…
South African Democracy Revisited
Against Impartiality
People often identify justice with impartiality. This reflects reality: many who experience injustice complain of biased treatment. But whether bias is objectionable depends on a prior commitment to an ideal of nondomination. I advance this claim by reference to impartiality arguments defended by Brian Barry and Amartya Sen. Then I sketch a historical account of impartialist ventures that shows why they once appealed but are such a tough sell tod…
Group Aspirations and Democratic Politics
The Nature of Contemporary Political Science
What is the nature of contemporary political science? What shared concerns bind us together as a discipline, providing a common definition and direction to our intellectual enterprise? These questions were on my mind as I organized the section on formal and normative political theory for the 1989 APSA meetings. Initially, I had wanted to sponsor a panel to address the nature of formal and normative theory. I knew I was a bit uncertain about the p…
Fiscal crisis of the Polish state
Two treatises of government
From the Publisher: This is a new revised version of Dr. Laslett's standard edition of Two Treatises. First published in 1960, and based on an analysis of the whole body of Locke's publications, writings, and papers. The Introduction and text have been revised to incorporate references to recent scholarship since the second edition and the bibliography has been updated
Gross Concepts in Political Argument
POLITICAL THEORISTS OFTEN fail to appreciate that any claim about how politics is to be organized must be a relational claim involving agents, actions, legitimacy, and ends. If they did, they would see that to defend the standard contending views in many of the controversies that occupy them is silly. In what follows I work through a number of debates about the nature of right, law, autonomy, utility, freedom, virtue, and justice, showing this to…
Constructing Politics
J. G. A. Pocock's republicanism and political theory
A growing sense of the exhaustion of both liberalism and Marxism has fueled a revival of interest in civic republicanism among historians, political theorists, and social commentators. This turn is evaluated via an examination of the normative implications off. G. A. Pocock's account of civic republicanism. Arguing that what is at issue between liberals and republicans has been misunderstood by both sides in the debate, the author shows that the …
The Nature of Contemporary Political Science
What is the nature of contemporary political science? What shared concerns bind us together as a discipline, providing a common definition and direction to our intellectual enterprise? These questions were on my mind as I organized the section on formal and normative political theory for the 1989 APSA meetings. Initially, I had wanted to sponsor a panel to address the nature of formal and normative theory. I knew I was a bit uncertain about the p…
Resources, Capacities, and Ownership
Though the Earth, and all inferior Creatures be common to all Men, yet every Man has a Property in his own Person. This no Body has any Right to but himself. The Labour of his Body, and the Work of his hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever then he removes out of the State that Nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his Labour with, and joyned it to something that is his own, and thereby makes it his Property. It being by hi…
Activities and Appointments
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Workmanship Revisited
PROFESSOR MURPHY AND I are agreed that the workmanship ideal as formulated by Locke supplies an inadequate basis for reasoning about distributive justice. We are also agreed that consequentialist considerations should play a role in (1) reasoning about distributive justice generally and (2) evaluating the advantages and limitations of the workmanship ideal. We differ in our accounts of why Locke's theological defense of the workmanship ideal shou…
The Difference that Realism Makes
Democratic Innovation
This review essay of four recent books on democratic transitions is written from the standpoint of contemporary South African politics. Each of the books takes the Schumpetarian model of democratic politics for granted, and in the course of evaluating them the author explores the advantages and limitations of that model for thinking about the prospects for democracy in South Africa. He concludes that the Schumpeterian model diverts attention from…
Three Ways to be a Democrat
Exploration de la question des rapports entre les demandes de justice et les pratiques de la politique democratique, esquisse d'une reponse
Theory and Practice
Teoria Della Scelta Razionale E Scienza Politica
IntroduzioneDalla pubblicazione diSocial Choice and Individual Valuesdi Kenneth Arrow nel 1951, si è avuta un'esplosione dell'approcciorational choicenegli studi di scienza politica. Negli anni Cinquanta e nei primi anni Sessanta, la teoria della scelta razionale rappresentava poco più di un ramo secondario all'interno di una disciplina – la scienza politica – dominata da varie forme di analisi behaviorista e istituzionalista. Oggi, di contro, es…
Notizie Sui Collaboratori Di Questo Numero
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Pathologies revisited
More than three decades after its advent in political science, rational choice theory has yet to add appreciably to the stock of knowledge about politics. In Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory we traced this failure to methodological defects rooted in the aspiration to come up with universal theories of politics. After responding to criticisms of our argument, we elaborate on our earlier recommendations about how to improve the quality of rati…
Choix rationnels et politique
Choix rationnels et politique. Pourquoi en savons-nous toujours aussi peu? Donald P. Green, Ian Shapiro. Cette critique de la contribution de la théorie des choix rationnels à la science politique, fondée sur une étude empirique, entend montrer que, à ce jour, les partisans de la méthodologie des choix rationnels ont peu apporté à notre connaissance de la vie politique. L'échec de ces théories est dû à un syndrome de déficiences méthodologiques r…
South Africa's Negotiated Transition
South African Democracy Revisited
Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory
This is the first comprehensive critical evaluation of the use of rational choice theory in political science. Writing in an accessible and nontechnical style, Donald P. Green and Ian Shapiro assess rational choice theory where it is reputed to be most successful: the study of collective action, the behavior of political parties and politicians, and such phenomena as voting cycles and Prisoner's Dilemmas. In their hard-hitting critique, Green and…
Democracy's Place
Elements of Democratic Justice
Definition d'une justice democratique fondee sur l'autogestion collective et sur l'institutionnalisation de l'opposition. L'A. mesure les implications de cette conception democratique de la justice sociale sur le fonctionnement de l'etat (mesures prises pour les biens publics, role du discours juridique dans l'argument pour la justice democratique
Ethnicity and Group Rights
The Misunderstood Promise of Realist Social Theory
Group Aspirations and Democratic Politics
Political science (66 works) · Law (52 works) · Politics (46 works) · Sociology (44 works) · Democracy (29 works) · Law (27 works) · Philosophy (25 works) · Philosophy (17 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (17 works) · Computer Science (16 works)