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Civic Agora Podcast
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Avshalom Schwartz named a Term Member of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters
The Academy's newest cohort of members was recognized at an investiture ceremony held in November 2025 at the historic Decatur House in Washington, DC. -
Biological and Cultural Evolution
Josiah Ober was interviewed by leading evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson about what the development of the ancient Greek world might tell us about the surprising similarities between biological and cultural evolution. -
China and Constitutional Democracy
In an article in the Journal of Confucian Philosophy and Culture, Dongxian Jiang argues that constitutional democracy in China needs support beyond Confucian justifications. -
Critical Review - Alicia Steinmetz
Alicia Steinmetz argues in an article forthcoming in Critical Review that Isaiah Berlin’s passionate defense of personal freedom and value pluralism remain relevant today because he forces us to reflect in more responsible ways on what we are doing when we pursue our political ideals. -
Dan Edelstein and Steve Haber invested as a Members of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters
Dan Edelstein and Steve Haber have been elected a Members of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters, which promotes scholarship and honors outstanding achievement in the arts, sciences, and learned professions. They were invested at a ceremony in Washington, DC, on November 12, 2025. -
Der gelbe Fleck im weißen Denken: Was Postcolonials von China lernen können
In this invited essay — "The Yellow Spot in White Thinking: What Postcolonialism Can Learn from China" — Dongxian Jiang explains to German readers whether and how the "decolonization of political theory" might learn from Chinese political thought. -
Dongxian Jiang named a Phyle Project Fellow
The fellowship supports a project tentatively titled "Political Thinking in a Levelled Society," which reconstructs a historical discourse that characterized imperial China as a "levelled" society and examines how that perspective shaped reflections on political equality and democratic possibility. -
Emily "Sal" Salamanca wins the 2026 Melvin Richter Prize
Her dissertation, "Legitimizing Luxury: Sumptuary Laws and Democratic Aesthetics in Athens, Rome, and Venice," shows that sumptuary regulations governing displays of luxury in Athens, Rome, and Venice were not primarily aimed at curbing excess. -
Financial stability and interdependence
In a new article in the Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, Javier Mejía and Juan David Dueñas develop a property-network approach to estimating systemic risk, reconstructing banks' ownership ties, they show that interlocking shareholders shaped each institution's incentives... -
How the Patent System Spurred Two Centuries of American Innovation
Stephen Haber talks about the history of the U.S. patent system and its relationship to innovation over the last two centuries. -
Humans as Political Animals
Josiah Ober’s essay in the new online Classics journal Antigone, asks whether Aristotle’s conception of humans as “political animals” still has relevance for us today. He explores how this ancient idea can deepen our understanding of human nature and political life. -
Josiah Ober ask what self-governance means when humans and AI share a system
In an article in Frontiers in Political Science, Josiah Ober (with Jeremy Pitt and Asimina Mertzani) examine hybrid socio-technical systems that combine human and artificial intelligence without external oversight. -
Josiah Ober wins the 2025 Balzan Prize
Josiah Ober has been awarded the 2025 Balzan Prize in the category "Classics: Athenian Democracy Revisited." The prize committee cited "his groundbreaking research on the origins and functioning of Athenian democracy in classical times, which has had an influence far beyond the academic world..." -
Marsilius' Defensor Pacis and the University of Paris
In a new article, Kajo Kubala examines the possible influence of the corporatism of the medieval University of Paris on Marsilius of Padua's Defensor Pacis. He argues that Marsilius's tenure as rector of the university's arts faculty gave him a blueprint of a self-governing community that complement -
Natural Rights and Government
Dan Edelstein’s On The Spirit of Rights examines how an 18th-century conception of natural rights challenged monarchy. Explore his New York Review of Books interview and webinar. -
Paul Lendway receives APSA's Aaron Wildavsky Award
Paul Lendway has won the Aaron Wildavsky Award, given by the American Political Science Association's Religion and Politics section. The award recognizes the best dissertation on religion and politics successfully defended within the previous two years. Read about it here -
Plutarch and Machiavelli: The Politics of Prudence
In this article in Political Theory, Dan Edelstein argues that the contrast obscures a deeper affinity — Plutarch supplied some of Machiavelli's most provocative ideas about fortune, fear, and the moral compromises of governing. Both, he suggests, belong to a shared tradition... -
Review of What Remains: The Collected Poems of Hannah Arendt
Ariel Y. Tang reviews the recently published German–English edition of Hannah Arendt's collected poems in Contemporary Political Theory. The review draws out the affinities between poetry and philosophy, life and thought, words and speechlessness in the work of a political thinker for whom... -
The Revolution to Come: A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin
Dan Edelstein's new book, published by Princeton University Press, asks how an event once considered the greatest of all political dangers came to be seen as a solution to all social problems. Tracing the idea from ancient Greece to Leninist Russia, he shows how classical thinkers treated... -
Why China Needs Democracy
Dongxian Jiang's new book, published by Princeton University Press, offers a realist defense of constitutional democracy in China. It challenges the assumptions underpinning the so-called "China Model."
Civics in the Stanford News
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Stanford students learn to lead with civic courage
Led by political scientist Josiah Ober, the Stanford Civics Initiative aims to inspire democratic citizenship through courses and programs focused on civics education.
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Josiah Ober’s mission to revitalize democracy and civic education
Using lessons from ancient Athens, the political scientist is inspiring a new way of thinking about civic responsibilities at Stanford and across the country.
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Exploring Concepts of Citizenship
Frosh tackled some big questions about the ideals of citizenship and democracy for their second course in COLLEGE, Stanford’s newly restructured undergraduate requirement program.
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Deliberation Nation
How improving civic literacy can reinforce democracy. SCI Faculty Committee members Josiah Ober, Brian Coyne, and Dan Edelstein discuss democratic citizenship and how civic education strengthens democracy.
