Ian Shapiro

Ian Shapiro is Sterling Professor of Political Science and Global Affairs at Yale University. He has written widely and influentially on democracy, justice, and the methods of social inquiry. A native of South Africa, he received his J.D. from the Yale Law School and his Ph.D from the Yale Political Science Department where he has taught since 1984 and served as chair from 1999 to 2004. Shapiro served as Henry R. Luce Director of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies from 2004-2019. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Academy of Social Insurance. Shapiro is a past fellow of the Carnegie Corporation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He has held visiting appointments at the University of Cape Town, Keio University in Tokyo, and Nuffield College, Oxford. His recent books are Politics Against Domination (Harvard University Press, 2016),  Responsible Parties: Saving Democracy from Itself (Yale University Press, 2018) with Frances Rosenbluth, The Wolf at the Door: The Menace of Economic Insecurity and how to Fight It  (Harvard University Press, 2020) with Michael Graetz, and Uncommon Sense (Yale University Press, 2024).  His current research concerns the relations between democracy and the distribution of income and wealth and the sources and consequences of populist politics. 

• Responsible Parties: Saving Democracy from Itself, with Frances Rosenbluth (Yale University Press, September 2018)
• Politics Against Domination. (Belknap Press, April 2016)
• Robert Dahl, On Democracy. 2nd edition. Preface and two additional chapters. (Yale University Press, 2015)
• The Real World of Democratic Theory (Princeton University Press, 2011)
• Containment: Rebuilding a Strategy against Global Terror (Princeton University Press, 2007; paperback, 2008)
• The Flight From Reality in the Human Sciences (Princeton University Press, 2005)
• Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Fight Over Taxing Inherited Wealth, with Michael Graetz. (Princeton University Press, 2005; reprinted, 2006 with new Epilogue)
• The State of Democratic Theory (Princeton University Press, 2003; reprinted 2004, 2006)
• The Moral Foundations of Politics (Yale University Press, 2003; reprinted 2004, 2005, 2009, 2012)
• Democratic Justice (Yale University Press, 1999; reprinted 2001, 2003, 2009. Published on line by netLibrary, 2001)
• Democracy’s Place (Cornell University Press, 1996; reprinted 2000)
• Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory: A Critique of Applications in Political Science, with Donald Green. (Yale University Press, 1994; reprinted 1995, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005)
• Political Criticism (University of California Press, 1990; reprinted 1992)
• The Evolution of Rights in Liberal Theory (Cambridge University Press, 1986; reprinted 1988, 1994, 2009)

• The Bretton Woods Agreement, co-edited with Naomi Lamaroux with an introduction and interpretive essays (Yale University Press, forthcoming 2019) 
• The NATO Charter, co-edited with Adam Tooze with an introduction and interpretive essays. (Yale University Press, 2018) 
• Readings on The Moral Foundations of Politics. (University Readers, 2016) 
• The United Nations Charter, coedited with Joseph Lampert with an introduction and interpretative essays (Yale University Press, 2014) 
• Selected Writings of Thomas Paine, co-edited with Jane Calvert (Yale University Press, 2014) 
• After Apartheid: Reinventing South Africa, co-edited with Khareem Tebeau (University of Virginia Press, 2011) 
• Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, edited with an introduction and interpretive essays (Yale University Press. 2010). 
• The Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, edited with an introduction and interpretive essays (Yale University Press, 2009)
• Political Representation, co-edited with Susan Stokes, Elisabeth Wood, and Alexander Kirschner (Cambridge University Press, 2009) 
• Divide and Deal: The Politics of Distribution in Democracies, co-edited with Peter Swenson and Daniela Donno (New York University Press, 2008). 
• Order, Conflict, and Violence, co-edited with Stathis Kalyvas and Tarek Masoud (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
• Political Contingency: Studying the Unexpected, the Accidental, and the Unforeseen, co-edited with Sonu Bedi (New York University Press, 2007; paperback, 2009). 
• Identities, Affiliations, and Allegiances, co-edited with Seyla Benhabib and Danilo Petranovich (Cambridge University Press, 2007, reprinted 2008) 
• Rethinking Political Institutions: The Art of the State, co-edited with Stephen Skowronek and Daniel Galvin (New York University Press, 2006; paperback, 2007) 
• Problems and Methods in the Study of Politics, co-edited with Rogers Smith and Tarek Masoud (Cambridge University Press, 2004) 
• The Democracy Sourcebook, co-edited with Robert Dahl and José Cheibub (MIT Press, 2003)
• John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration and Two Treatises of Government, edited with an introduction and interpretive essays (Yale University Press, 2003; reprinted 2004, 2009)
• NOMOS XLII: Designing Democratic Institutions, with Steven Macedo (New York University Press, 2000) 
• Democracy’s Value, with Casiano Hacker-Cordón (Cambridge University Press, 1999; reprinted 2001)
• Democracy’s Edges, with Casiano Hacker-Cordón (Cambridge University Press, 1999; reprinted 2001)
• NOMOS XLI: Global Justice, with Lea Brilmayer (New York University Press, 1999) 
• NOMOS XL: Integrity and Conscience, with Robert Adams (New York University Press, 1998) 
• NOMOS IXL: Ethnicity and Group Rights, with Will Kymlicka (New York University Press 1997) 
• NOMOS XXXVIII: Political Order, with Russell Hardin (New York University Press, 1996)
• NOMOS XXXVII: Theory and Practice, with Judith Wagner De Cew (New York University Press, 1995) 
• Abortion: The Supreme Court Decisions (Hackett 1995; second edition 2001; third edition 2007) 
• NOMOS XXXVI: The Rule of Law (New York University Press, 1994) 
• John Dewey, The Political Writings, with Debra Morris (Hackett, 1993; reprinted 1999)
• NOMOS XXXV: Democratic Community, with John Chapman, (New York University Press, 1993)
• Power, Inequality, and Democratic Politics, with Grant Reeher, (Westview Press, 1988)

• Directing democracy,” with Frances Rosenbluth, The Yale Review, Vol. 105, No. 3 July 2017, pp. 26-35. 
• “Negative liberty and the Cold War,” with Alicia Steinmetz, to appear in Steven Smith and Joshua Cherniss, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Isaiah Berlin (Cambridge University Press, 2018). 
• “Collusion in restraint of democracy: Against political deliberation,” Daedalus Vol. 146, No. 3 (Summer 2017), pp. 77-84. To be reprinted in Isaac Kramnick and Theodore J. Lowi, eds., American Political Thought: A Norton Anthology, 2nd Ed. (W.W. Horton, 2018). 
• “Against Impartiality.” Journal of Politics, Vol. 78, No. 2 (April 2016) 
• “Transforming Power Relationships: Leadership, Risk, and Hope,” with James Read, American Political Science Review, Vol. 108, No. 1 (February 2014), pp. 40-53.
• “Methods are like people: If you focus only on what they cannot do, you will always be disappointed,” in Dawn Langan Teele, ed, Field Experiments and their Critics: Essays on the Uses and Abuses of Experimentation in the Social Sciences (Yale University Press, 2014), pp. 228-41.
• “Judgment and democratic leadership,” in John Kane and Haig Patapan, eds, Good Democratic Leadership: On Prudence and Judgment in Modern Democracies (Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 128-38.
• “Democracy Between Elections,” Adam Przeworski, ed, Democracy in the Russian Mirror (Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 173-83.
• “Still Speaking in a Judicial Voice: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Two Decades Later,” Yale Law Journal, Online Vol. 122 (2013).
• “On non-domination,” University of Toronto Law Journal, Vol. 62, No. 3 (2012), pp. 293-336.
• Review essay of The Idea of Justice, by Amartya Sen, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XLIX (December 2011), pp. 1251-63. 
• “The social sciences and the financial crisis: Reflections on recent trends,” (in English and Korean), Journal of Political Criticism, Vol. 8, No. 5 (May 2011), pp. 5-36. 
• “Containment and Democratic Cosmopolitanism,” Moscow State University Bulletin. International Relations and World Politics. No.1 (January-March), 2011, pp. 3-31. 
• “Reductionism in the human sciences: A philosopher’s game,” (with Robert G. Schulman),” in C. Mantzavinos, ed., Philosophy of the Social Sciences: Philosophical Theory and Scientific Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 124-30. 
• “Reflections on Skinner and Pettit,” Hobbes Studies, Volume 22, No. 2 (2009), pp. 185-191(7). 
• “A global response to terrorism,” International Spectator, Vol. 32, No. 3 (September 2008), pp. 27-34. Reprinted in Advance, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Fall 2008), pp. 37-42. 
• “Contención y cosmopolitismo democrático,” Foro Internacional 193, Vol. XLVIII-3, julioseptiembre de 2008. 
• “Tyranny and Democracy: Reflections on Some Recent Literature,” Government and Opposition, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Summer 2008).

• “Underwriting the Peace Dividend: Colombian Business after the Plebiscite,” with Nicolas Jimenez and Nicholas Strong, Forbes on line (October 26, 2016). 
• “Beyond the Two-State Solution,” Project Syndicate (project-syndicate.org. March 3, 2016)
• “Debt Ceiling Redux?” YaleGlobal Online (yaleglobal.yale.edu. February 20, 2014) 
• “Consols could avert another debt-ceiling crisis,” The Washington Post (washingtonpost.com. November 14, 2013) 
• “The Promise of Africa,” YaleGlobal Online (yaleglobal.yale.edu. May 23, 2013) 
• “Restoring European Growth,” Project Syndicate (project-syndicate.org. December 27, 2011) 
• “Better Ways to End Prison Overcrowding Than Just Releasing Inmates,” The Christian Science Monitor (June 3, 2011). Excerpt on Questia (questia.com) 
• “Billions in Giveways to a Tiny Group,” The New York Times (nytimes.com. December 16, 2010) 
• “Containment, not Appeasement,” Project Syndicate (project-syndicate.org. December 29, 2006); YaleGlobal Online (yaleglobal.yale.edu. January 17, 2007) 
• “A Model That Pretends to Explain Everything,” The New York Times (nytimes.com. February 26, 2000)