Charles Beitz
· ProfessorPrinceton University · Politics
Active 1973–2024
About
Charles Beitz is the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Politics at Princeton University. He teaches contemporary political philosophy and the history of modern political philosophy, with special interests in global political theory, theories of human rights, democratic theory, theories of property, and theories of justice from Hobbes to the present. Beitz has authored several influential books, including 'The Idea of Human Rights' (2009), which won the 2011 Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book Award, and 'Political Theory and International Relations' (1979, rev. 1999). His 2022 Berkeley Tanner lectures have been published as 'For the People? Democratic Representation in America' (2024). He has contributed extensively to the fields of political theory, philosophy, and political science through articles in various journals and has served as editor and advisory editor for the journal Philosophy & Public Affairs. Beitz joined Princeton in 2001 from Bowdoin College, where he was dean for academic affairs and a professor of government and legal studies, and he previously taught at Swarthmore College. His educational background includes a B.A. in history from Colgate University, an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Michigan, and both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in politics and the Program in Political Philosophy from Princeton. He has held fellowships from prominent foundations and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Recognized for his teaching and mentorship, Beitz received the APSA Sigma Alpha Award and the Princeton McGraw Center Graduate Mentoring Award in 2006.
Research topics
- Political Science
- Sociology
- Law
- Law and economics
- Epistemology
- Philosophy
Selected publications
2024-10-02
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract In the last few decades, many professional observers of American politics have worried that the constitutional system of democratic representation is failing. The convergence on intimations of failure is my starting point. It raises first-order normative concerns about the health of democratic representation in America that should worry all of us. The convergence also raises more theoretical questions about the nature and aims of democratic representation or, as I put it here, about standards of fair and effective representation. The first lecture begins by noting some stylized facts that purport to describe shortfalls from democratic representation. These include the phenomena of legislative gridlock, partisan polarization, unequal responsiveness by class and race, and partisan bias in legislative districting. Reflecting on these phenomena, I distinguish several kinds of failures that they implicate: of effectiveness, of congruence and responsiveness, and of fairness. In each case my aim is to grasp the normative grounds of judgments of failure explicit or implicit in the empirical literatures. On inspection, we see that the judgments of failure appeal to several distinct considerations of democratic political morality. It is difficult to see how these considerations might be brought within a single perspective that can make sense of them all. This prepares the way for the second lecture, where I try to sketch one way we might construct such a perspective.
Philosophy & Public Affairs · 2024-01-01 · 1 citations
paratextOpen access2024-10-02 · 1 citations
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract The second lecture begins by drawing lessons about democratic representation from the intimations of failure canvassed in the first lecture. It goes on to sketch a normative conception of democratic representation as a properly regulated competitive system. The basic idea is that competition is a distinctive means of solving problems that depends on its participants conducting themselves as adversaries. We rely on competition to produce social value. The problem is that, if not properly regulated, political competition can run off the rails, defeating its social purposes. A central problem for a theory of democratic representation is to identify the purposes we rely on political competition to produce and the arenas in which competition can produce them. The lecture notes four such purposes: to produce policy responsive to the settled will of the majority; to avoid predictable forms of substantive injustice; to resolve conflict effectively, at least insofar as it pertains to broadly valued public functions; and to maintain deliberative environments in both the institutional and public spheres conducive to epistemically responsible judgment by public officials and citizens. The purposes can be realized in different ways and to different extents in the various competitive arenas that make up the system. To illustrate, we consider three arenas of competition—electoral competition, party competition, and interest competition—and ask what it would mean for competition in these arenas to be fairly regulated. It emerges that well-regulated competition among healthy political parties is a necessary condition of fair and effective representation.
2024-10-02
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract The commentators provide illuminating remarks on the relationship between preferences and policy and political competition, on the importance of legitimacy, and on the shortcomings of American institutions such as the Senate and Electoral College. Gilens offers a shorthand for thinking about three justifying purposes for democracy (responsiveness, protecting group interests, and decisiveness), and his empirical finding that the rich are much more likely to get their way than the middle class or poor suggests a failure of democracy linked to inequality. Mansbridge adds a concern with democratic legitimacy and asks whether competition could undermine it and how competition might be moderated. Karlan shows that a combination of the rules of the American Constitution and changes in political geography have exacerbated the countermajoritarian features of the Senate and Electoral College. I comment on the ways these themes enrich and qualify the main lines of argument in the lectures.
2024-10-02 · 36 citations
other1st authorCorresponding2024-08-05 · 3 citations
book1st authorCorrespondingAbstract Disquieting symptoms of democratic failure abound in America today with gridlocked political institutions, high levels of political polarization, and pressing but unresolved problems such as immigration, inequality, and gun violence. Are these the results of political institutions that cannot provide effective democratic representative? For the People takes a realistic look at American democracy by linking the findings of political scientists to the scrutiny of political theorists. Charles Beitz provides the core analysis showing that there are truly democratic failures (alternatively the misadventures of American politics could be due to changing times that would stress any system) and that there are possibilities for better democratic competition that could improve democratic representation. Additional chapters by a political scientist, Martin Gilens, a political theorist, Jane Mansbridge, and a lawyer, Pamela S. Karlan, sharpen the analysis by providing empirical results, additional standards for successful democracy, and concerns about two non-majoritarian American institutions, the Senate and the Electoral College. Beitz ends the book with a response to the three commentators.
2024-10-02
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding2024-10-02
other1st authorCorrespondingPhilosophy & Public Affairs · 2023-10-01
paratextOpen accessJustice and International Relations
Princeton University Press eBooks · 2022 · 12 citations
1st authorCorresponding- Political Science
- Sociology
- Political Science
Frequent coauthors
- 65 shared
Susan Strange
- 64 shared
Montague Burton
- 64 shared
Trongr Chai
University of Southern California
- 64 shared
Richard Peck
- 64 shared
Werner J. Feld
- 39 shared
Atul Kohli
- 38 shared
Robert W. Tucker
- 36 shared
Herbert Kitschelt
Awards & honors
- Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book Award (2011)
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected 2008
- Graduate Mentoring Award, McGraw Center for Teaching and Lea…
- APSA Pi Sigma Alpha Award for Outstanding Teaching (2006)
- John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2003-04)
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