The Future of “Un”Democratic Theory – Alexander Kirshner (Political Science, Duke University)

Moderator: Philipp Nielsen

Date and Time: Wednesday 17 December 2025, 16:00–18:00

Place: Room A7, Academy Building, University of Groningen

Abstract

Most people live in autocracies. And over the past two decades, the study of autocracy has boomed across a variety of fields. But not in political philosophy. Relatively few recent works examine non-democracy. This presentation tackles this lacuna. It does so by thinking through how political philosophy can contribute to the study of autocracy. In other words, I try to imagine a future for (un)democratic theory. 

Here is the main idea: it is helpful to divide the normative analysis of autocracy into three buckets. The first bucket includes works, like my own, that consider autocracy to better understand democracy. These works instrumentalize the study of autocracy. The second bucket includes both defenses of democracy and autocracy. These works are competitive; they aim to show the superiority of one system over the other. Most recent normative analyses of autocracy are instrumental and/or competitive. 

There is nothing wrong with those works. But they don’t deal with many of the most interesting and important normative questions that are raised by autocratic government. Works that fall into the third bucket—works that focus on autocracy for its own sake—can tackle such questions and fill important scholarly gaps. For instance, how do autocracies shape social relations? Is the need to compromise one’s integrity part of the nature of autocracy? What should we make of autocratic courts and systems of separated powers? What is the normative status of political representation in non-democracies? There is currently little contemporary work focusing on questions of this sort. This presentation makes the case that there should be more.

This talk is jointly organised by the Centre for Historical Studies group Power, Statecraft, and the History of Political Experiences and the RUG European Politics & Society (REPS).

Islamic Constitutionalism in the Seventh Century: The Conditional Obedience Principle – Lecture by Ahmed El Shamsy (NIAS/University of Chicago)

date and time 16 January 2026, 16:00 -18:00

Place: Amsterdam, Sweelinck Room, Oude Turfmarkt 145-147

Abstract

Western academic study of Islamic political theory has historically tended to place it in the category of “Oriental despotism.” This claim is part and parcel of the ideology of Western exceptionalism and served as a justification for European colonial and postcolonial domination of Muslim-majority countries. A study of Islamic political theory in the first two centuries of Islam (seventh and eighth centuries CE) demonstrates the existence of a robust conceptual safeguard against despotic and absolutist government, accompanied by the emergence of institutions to limit the power of the executive.

This event is jointly organised by the research group Global Political Thought of the University of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam Medieval Seminar.

Registration is required: please register here.