Steven Klein
Biographic Data
| ID | 3603427 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Steven Klein |
| GIVEN NAMES | Steven |
| FAMILY NAME | Klein |
| SIGNATURE | KLEIN S |
| AFFILIATIONS | King's College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7224-9161 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 90 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
A Democratic Theory of Labor Unions
Recently, political theorists have been increasingly concerned with the implications of democratic values for work. This article contributes to these debates by examining the main vehicle through which workers, historically, have sought democracy at work: the labor union. The article defends a vision of economic democracy that arises from the practice of labor unions. It then emphasizes the distinctive features of labor unions that make them pote…
Rethinking Citizen Competence: A New Theoretical and Empirical Framework
Sceptics charge that ordinary citizens are not competent enough to sustain democracy. We challenge this assessment on empirical and theoretical grounds. Theoretically, we provide a new typology for assessing citizen competence. We distinguish the democratic values of reliability, accountability, and inclusive equality, mapping the different competencies implied by each. Empirically, we show that recent research, focused primarily on Americans but…
A transnational double movement? Polanyian reflections on conflicts law constitutionalism
Few issues remain as fraught as the relationship between European integration and national welfare states. For too long, Social Europe was an afterthought, relegated to the soft domain of the open method of coordination, while the formation of the single market proceeded with the full force of European law and institutions. Since the 2008 financial crisis, the social has returned-not just in Europe, but in all regions grappling with what comes af…
On the Egalitarian Value of Electoral Democracy
Within democratic theory, electoral competition is typically associated with minimalist and realist views of democracy. In contrast, this article argues for a reinterpretation of electoral competition as an important element of an egalitarian theory of democracy. Current relational egalitarian theories, in focusing on the equalization of individual power-over, present electoral institutions as in tension with equality. Against this view, the arti…
Response to Benjamin McKean’s Review of The Work of Politics: Making a Democratic Welfare State
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Democracy Requires Organized Collective Power
Democratic institutions awaken and flatter the passion for equality without ever being able to satisfy it entirely.11 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. George Lawrence (New York: Harper, 2006), p. 198. Alexis de Tocqueville To turn from mechanisms and concepts to the social forces in play ...22 Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001), p. 206. Karl Polany…
The Work of Politics: Making a Democratic Welfare State
The Work of Politics advances a new understanding of how democratic social movements work with welfare institutions to challenge structures of domination. Klein develops a novel theory that depicts welfare institutions as "worldly mediators," or sites of democratic world-making fostering political empowerment and participation within the context of capitalist economic forces. Drawing on the writings of Weber, Arendt, and Habermas, and historical …
European Law and the Dilemmas of Democratic Capitalism
Karl Polanyi’s critique of the ideal of the self-adjusting market is increasingly invoked to challenge the negative effects of European integration on national social welfare systems. However, these debates have been caught in an unhelpful opposition between European market openness and national social closure. Challenging common interpretations of Polanyi, this article shows that he develops a theory of the relationship between democratic recipr…
The power of money: Critical theory, capitalism, and the politics of debt
Towards a Dynamic Theory of Civil Society: The Politics of Forward and Backward Infiltration
This article develops a conceptual framework to theorize the processes of mutual penetration between civil society, the state, and the economy, where incumbents and challengers continuously formulate new strategies against each other. We criticize the prevailing Weberian and Tocquevillian concepts of civil society, and then, drawing on research in social movements and comparative political economy, propose a new framework: the politics of forward…
The Role of Self-reports and Behavioral Measures of Interpretation Biases in Children with Varying Levels of Anxiety
We investigated the role of self-reports and behavioral measures of interpretation biases and their content-specificity in children with varying levels of spider fear and/or social anxiety. In total, 141 selected children from a community sample completed an interpretation bias task with scenarios that were related to either spider threat or social threat. Specific interpretation biases were found; only spider-related interpretation bias and self…
Between Charisma and Domination: On Max Weber’s Critique of Democracy
Prominent strands of contemporary democratic theory, by figuring genuine democratic agency as fundamentally disruptive, present conventional social and political institutions merely as sites of calculation and normalization. This article challenges such a view by tracing its origins in Max Weber’s theory of domination. Even as many democratic theorists repudiate the political consequences of Weber’s thought, they fail to fully confront the sociot…
Fictitious Freedom: A Polanyian Critique of the Republican Revival
Prominent republican theorists invoke anonymous orders such as the market as mechanisms that secure freedom as non‐domination. Drawing on Karl Polanyi's account of fictitious commodities and demonstration of the impossibility of a just and rational market society, this article critically scrutinizes neo‐republican assumptions regarding the market, develops an alternate social theory within which to situate the ideal of non‐domination, and illustr…
Fit to Enter the World: Hannah Arendt on Politics, Economics, and the Welfare State
What is the significance of the welfare state and struggles over social and economic needs for democratic politics? This article turns to Hannah Arendt's thought to articulate new possibilities for relating democratic agency and the welfare state, possibilities neglected by currently dominant deliberative and radical democratic approaches. Against critics who claim that Arendt seeks to purify politics of economic and social problems, I argue that…
Birth order and introversion-extraversion
Democracy Requires Organized Collective Power
Democratic institutions awaken and flatter the passion for equality without ever being able to satisfy it entirely.11 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. George Lawrence (New York: Harper, 2006), p. 198. Alexis de Tocqueville To turn from mechanisms and concepts to the social forces in play ...22 Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001), p. 206. Karl Polany…
Towards a Dynamic Theory of Civil Society: The Politics of Forward and Backward Infiltration
This article develops a conceptual framework to theorize the processes of mutual penetration between civil society, the state, and the economy, where incumbents and challengers continuously formulate new strategies against each other. We criticize the prevailing Weberian and Tocquevillian concepts of civil society, and then, drawing on research in social movements and comparative political economy, propose a new framework: the politics of forward…
Fit to Enter the World: Hannah Arendt on Politics, Economics, and the Welfare State
What is the significance of the welfare state and struggles over social and economic needs for democratic politics? This article turns to Hannah Arendt's thought to articulate new possibilities for relating democratic agency and the welfare state, possibilities neglected by currently dominant deliberative and radical democratic approaches. Against critics who claim that Arendt seeks to purify politics of economic and social problems, I argue that…
Fictitious Freedom: A Polanyian Critique of the Republican Revival
Prominent republican theorists invoke anonymous orders such as the market as mechanisms that secure freedom as non‐domination. Drawing on Karl Polanyi's account of fictitious commodities and demonstration of the impossibility of a just and rational market society, this article critically scrutinizes neo‐republican assumptions regarding the market, develops an alternate social theory within which to situate the ideal of non‐domination, and illustr…
Between Charisma and Domination: On Max Weber’s Critique of Democracy
Prominent strands of contemporary democratic theory, by figuring genuine democratic agency as fundamentally disruptive, present conventional social and political institutions merely as sites of calculation and normalization. This article challenges such a view by tracing its origins in Max Weber’s theory of domination. Even as many democratic theorists repudiate the political consequences of Weber’s thought, they fail to fully confront the sociot…
The power of money: Critical theory, capitalism, and the politics of debt
On the Egalitarian Value of Electoral Democracy
Within democratic theory, electoral competition is typically associated with minimalist and realist views of democracy. In contrast, this article argues for a reinterpretation of electoral competition as an important element of an egalitarian theory of democracy. Current relational egalitarian theories, in focusing on the equalization of individual power-over, present electoral institutions as in tension with equality. Against this view, the arti…
European Law and the Dilemmas of Democratic Capitalism
Karl Polanyi’s critique of the ideal of the self-adjusting market is increasingly invoked to challenge the negative effects of European integration on national social welfare systems. However, these debates have been caught in an unhelpful opposition between European market openness and national social closure. Challenging common interpretations of Polanyi, this article shows that he develops a theory of the relationship between democratic recipr…
A transnational double movement? Polanyian reflections on conflicts law constitutionalism
Few issues remain as fraught as the relationship between European integration and national welfare states. For too long, Social Europe was an afterthought, relegated to the soft domain of the open method of coordination, while the formation of the single market proceeded with the full force of European law and institutions. Since the 2008 financial crisis, the social has returned-not just in Europe, but in all regions grappling with what comes af…
Birth order and introversion-extraversion
Birth order and introversion-extraversion
Fit to Enter the World: Hannah Arendt on Politics, Economics, and the Welfare State
What is the significance of the welfare state and struggles over social and economic needs for democratic politics? This article turns to Hannah Arendt's thought to articulate new possibilities for relating democratic agency and the welfare state, possibilities neglected by currently dominant deliberative and radical democratic approaches. Against critics who claim that Arendt seeks to purify politics of economic and social problems, I argue that…
Between Charisma and Domination: On Max Weber’s Critique of Democracy
Prominent strands of contemporary democratic theory, by figuring genuine democratic agency as fundamentally disruptive, present conventional social and political institutions merely as sites of calculation and normalization. This article challenges such a view by tracing its origins in Max Weber’s theory of domination. Even as many democratic theorists repudiate the political consequences of Weber’s thought, they fail to fully confront the sociot…
Fictitious Freedom: A Polanyian Critique of the Republican Revival
Prominent republican theorists invoke anonymous orders such as the market as mechanisms that secure freedom as non‐domination. Drawing on Karl Polanyi's account of fictitious commodities and demonstration of the impossibility of a just and rational market society, this article critically scrutinizes neo‐republican assumptions regarding the market, develops an alternate social theory within which to situate the ideal of non‐domination, and illustr…
The Role of Self-reports and Behavioral Measures of Interpretation Biases in Children with Varying Levels of Anxiety
We investigated the role of self-reports and behavioral measures of interpretation biases and their content-specificity in children with varying levels of spider fear and/or social anxiety. In total, 141 selected children from a community sample completed an interpretation bias task with scenarios that were related to either spider threat or social threat. Specific interpretation biases were found; only spider-related interpretation bias and self…
Towards a Dynamic Theory of Civil Society: The Politics of Forward and Backward Infiltration
This article develops a conceptual framework to theorize the processes of mutual penetration between civil society, the state, and the economy, where incumbents and challengers continuously formulate new strategies against each other. We criticize the prevailing Weberian and Tocquevillian concepts of civil society, and then, drawing on research in social movements and comparative political economy, propose a new framework: the politics of forward…
The Work of Politics: Making a Democratic Welfare State
The Work of Politics advances a new understanding of how democratic social movements work with welfare institutions to challenge structures of domination. Klein develops a novel theory that depicts welfare institutions as "worldly mediators," or sites of democratic world-making fostering political empowerment and participation within the context of capitalist economic forces. Drawing on the writings of Weber, Arendt, and Habermas, and historical …
European Law and the Dilemmas of Democratic Capitalism
Karl Polanyi’s critique of the ideal of the self-adjusting market is increasingly invoked to challenge the negative effects of European integration on national social welfare systems. However, these debates have been caught in an unhelpful opposition between European market openness and national social closure. Challenging common interpretations of Polanyi, this article shows that he develops a theory of the relationship between democratic recipr…
The power of money: Critical theory, capitalism, and the politics of debt
Response to Benjamin McKean’s Review of The Work of Politics: Making a Democratic Welfare State
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Democracy Requires Organized Collective Power
Democratic institutions awaken and flatter the passion for equality without ever being able to satisfy it entirely.11 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. George Lawrence (New York: Harper, 2006), p. 198. Alexis de Tocqueville To turn from mechanisms and concepts to the social forces in play ...22 Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001), p. 206. Karl Polany…
On the Egalitarian Value of Electoral Democracy
Within democratic theory, electoral competition is typically associated with minimalist and realist views of democracy. In contrast, this article argues for a reinterpretation of electoral competition as an important element of an egalitarian theory of democracy. Current relational egalitarian theories, in focusing on the equalization of individual power-over, present electoral institutions as in tension with equality. Against this view, the arti…
Rethinking Citizen Competence: A New Theoretical and Empirical Framework
Sceptics charge that ordinary citizens are not competent enough to sustain democracy. We challenge this assessment on empirical and theoretical grounds. Theoretically, we provide a new typology for assessing citizen competence. We distinguish the democratic values of reliability, accountability, and inclusive equality, mapping the different competencies implied by each. Empirically, we show that recent research, focused primarily on Americans but…
A transnational double movement? Polanyian reflections on conflicts law constitutionalism
Few issues remain as fraught as the relationship between European integration and national welfare states. For too long, Social Europe was an afterthought, relegated to the soft domain of the open method of coordination, while the formation of the single market proceeded with the full force of European law and institutions. Since the 2008 financial crisis, the social has returned-not just in Europe, but in all regions grappling with what comes af…
A Democratic Theory of Labor Unions
Recently, political theorists have been increasingly concerned with the implications of democratic values for work. This article contributes to these debates by examining the main vehicle through which workers, historically, have sought democracy at work: the labor union. The article defends a vision of economic democracy that arises from the practice of labor unions. It then emphasizes the distinctive features of labor unions that make them pote…
Political science (11 works) · Politics (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Democracy (8 works) · Economics (6 works) · Law and economics (6 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works)