2021/05/11 by Ira Katznelson · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Engineering · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #American Constitutional Law and Politics #Political Philosophy and Ethics #Liberalism #Politics #Democracy #Classical liberalism #Liberal democracy #Causality (physics) #Sociology #Representation (politics) #Law and economics #Government (linguistics) #Law #Public reason #Political science #Intersection (aeronautics) #Epistemology #Philosophy #Engineering
paper · doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-042219-030219
openalex publication_date 2021/05/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/23
Taking liberalism's measure as an indispensable yet inherently fragile design grounded in the rule of law, government by consent, individual and public rights, and political representation, my work at the intersection of ideas, institutions, and methods to appraise behavior has focused on origins and transitions, membership boundaries and domination, and an unsteady bonding with the older regime model of democracy. Shaped by early and later life experiences and guided by the good fortune of stimulating networks and enabling institutions, my analytical histories of thought and events, primarily in the American experience, have asked when and why liberal democracies become normatively appealing (less closed and more tolerant) and more effective (less vulnerable and more secure). As a political scientist trained in history, I have been keen to advance a discipline that refuses to be enclosed or too crisply divided into subfields, or, indeed, to choose between quests for causality and understanding.