'Democracy for Busy People'
Kevin Elliott, Jennifer Rubenstein
How can we make democratic participation more inclusive? Many citizens in today’s democracies are busy with the necessities of life. Participation in democratic politics takes time, energy, resources, and, usually, a flexible schedule. The demands required for active democratic participation, however, can exacerbate inequalities. How could we think about the nature of our democratic institutions and practices in ways that would make democracy more inclusive of people with limited time for politics so that all could participate?
Join Kevin Elliott, lecturer in ethics, politics, and economics at Yale University, and Jennifer Rubenstein, UVA associate professor of politics, for a discussion about these questions addressed in Elliott’s new book, Democracy for Busy People (University of Chicago Press).
The Nau Lab's “Touchstones of Democracy” series explores key events, places, thinkers, and texts that inform the history and principles of democracy. Join us for the spring 2024 conversations, which are produced by the Karsh Institute of Democracy and the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
Speakers
Kevin Elliott
Political Scientist, Yale University
Lecturer in Ethics, Politics, and Economics, Yale University
Kevin Elliott
Political Scientist, Yale University
Lecturer in Ethics, Politics, and Economics, Yale University
Kevin J. Elliott is a political scientist and lecturer in ethics, politics, and economics at Yale University. His main research interests are in political theory, particularly democratic theory, and focus on the ethics of democratic citizenship, political epistemology, and the normative justification and design of political institutions. Much of his research investigates questions at the intersection of normative and empirical inquiry, and so draws from both.
He is author of Democracy for Busy People (University of Chicago Press). His work has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics, Political Theory, Critical Review, Contemporary Political Theory, CRISPP (Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy) and Res Publica. He received his PhD from Columbia University in 2015, a master’s in political theory from the London School of Economics, and his bachelor's degree from UCLA (Summa Cum Laude; Dept & Collegiate Honors).
Website: https://politicalscience.yale.edu/people/kevin-elliott
Jennifer Rubenstein
Associate Professor of Politics, University of Virginia
Jennifer Rubenstein
Associate Professor of Politics, University of Virginia
Jennifer Rubenstein is an associate professor of politics at the University of Virginia specializing in political theory. Her interests include the political role and ethical responsibilities of non-governmental organizations; global justice; non-ideal theory; democratic theory (especially theories of non-electoral representation and advocacy that attend to global inequalities); theories of office; and the role of imagination and experience in politics. She has published or forthcoming articles in Journal of Politics, Journal of Political Philosophy, Journal of Social Philosophy, and the British Journal of Political Science, as well as chapters in several edited volumes. She is currently finishing a book manuscript about the political ethics of international non-governmental humanitarian organizations Between Samaritans and States: the Political Ethics of Humanitarian INGOs. Before coming to UVA, Rubenstein was the Cotsen-Link post-doctoral fellow in the Society of Fellows at Princeton University. She received her PhD from the University of Chicago.