Scholars@Duke
Alexander Kirshner

Alexander Kirshner CV

Associate Professor of Political Science
Political Science
alexander.kirshner@duke.edu
Box 90204, Durham, NC 27708
140 Science Drive, 204K Gross, Box 90204, Durham, NC 27708
CV

Selected Publications

Why Political Philosophy Should Be Robust

Journal Article American Political Science Review · November 1, 2024 Political philosophers and theorists make arguments about high-stakes problems. This article shows that those theories would be more credible if political philosophers ensured their work was robust: capable of withstanding reasonable changes to their assum ... Full text Cite

Legitimate opposition

Book · September 20, 2022 In political systems defined by legitimate opposition, those who hold power allow their rivals to peacefully challenge and displace them, and those who have lost power do not seek to sabotage the winners. Legitimate opposition came under assault at the Ame ... Full text Cite

Can liberal integrity handle disagreement? Perhaps not

Journal Article Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy · January 1, 2021 Can liberal integrity handle disagreement? I suggest that it cannot. Shmuel Nili’ s The People’s Duty outlines a pedagogical approach to collective, liberal integrity–Nili claims that individuals act with integrity when they accept and act on the right pro ... Full text Cite

Militant Democracy and Its Critics: Populism, Parties, Extremism

Book · January 1, 2019 Should representative governments restrict the democratic rights of their extremist opponents? • The first edited collection to boast an international group of political scientists, legal scholars and philosophers debating the urgent question of how to com ... Cite

Militant Democracy Defended

Chapter · January 1, 2019 Cite

Nonideal democratic authority: The case of undemocratic elections

Journal Article Politics, Philosophy and Economics · August 1, 2018 Empirical research has transformed our understanding of autocratic institutions (Gandhi, 2008; Magaloni, 2006; Schedler, 2009). Yet democratic theorists remain laser-focused on ideal democracies, often contending that political equality is necessary to gen ... Full text Cite

Political and ethical action in the age of Trump

Journal Article Contemporary Political Theory · August 1, 2018 Full text Cite

Legitimate opposition, ostracism, and the law of democracy in ancient athens

Journal Article Journal of Politics · October 1, 2016 Traditionally, scholars have tied the emergence of legitimate opposition to the rise of political parties in the nineteenth century. Once governments acknowledged parties' and partisans' essential roles in representative government, they also established l ... Full text Open Access Cite

Democracy Disfigured: Opinion, Truth, and the People

Journal Article Political Science Quarterly · September 1, 2015 Full text Cite

A theory of militant democracy: The ethics of combatting political extremism

Book · June 30, 2014 How should pro-democratic forces safeguard representative government from anti-democratic forces? By granting rights of participation to groups that do not share democratic values, democracies may endanger the very rights they have granted; but denying the ... Cite

Political representation

Book · January 1, 2010 Political representation lies at the core of modern politics. Democracies, with their vast numbers of citizens, could not operate without representative institutions. Yet relations between the democratic ideal and the everyday practice of political represe ... Full text Cite

Proceduralism and Popular Threats to Democracy

Journal Article JOURNAL OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY · 2010 Featured Publication Full text Cite

Editors’ introduction

Journal Article Political Representation · January 1, 2010 Certainly, gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; thei ... Full text Cite