Challenges to Democratic Politics
2000 -
In September 2000, the Centre inaugurated a three-year programme on Challenges to
Democratic Politics in the 21st Century, coordinated by Melissa Lane (Centre for History and
Economics) and Richard Tuck (Department of Government, Harvard University). Based
jointly at Harvard University and Cambridge University the programme studies the
discrepancy in the last fifty years between the respect publicly accorded to the principles of
democratic politics in all parts of the modern world and the actual practice of many developed
industrial nations. During the post-war period, much of the most important political decisionmaking in such countries seems to have been transferred to institutions which are not
straightforwardly under democratic control. The programme explores both theoretical views
about democratic election as the key element in political legitimacy and accountability, and
the practical emergence of national and international political structures which do not
incorporate election.
A meeting on The New Philanthropy and its Significance for International Institutions: The
Case of Education, organised by Melissa Lane, was held on 2-3 May 2003 in King's College,
Cambridge. The meeting was conceived as a parallel to the one held on health two years ago
(see below), drawing on democratic theory to illuminate the question of legitimacy of
philanthropic initiatives in international education. Papers for the meeting examined the
current state of American philanthropic funding of international educational initiatives
(Paula Johnson), changes in the nature of philanthropy and the public sector in Indian higher
education (Pratap Mehta), the involvement of philanthropy in education in nineteenth century
Britain (Joe Bord), and (in a discussion note) the legitimacy of philanthropic initiatives in
international education (Melissa Lane). Participants included Sunil Amrith (Faculty of
History and Christ's College, Cambridge), Joe Bord (Trinity College, Cambridge), Roy CarrHill (Institute for Education, London), Lincoln Chen (Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University), Martha Chen (Harvard University), Shaila Fennell (Development
Studies, Cambridge), Sarah Hodges (Department of History and Philosophy of Science,
Cambridge University), Paula Johnson (Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University), Ananya Kabir (Centre for History and Economics), Pratap Mehta (Jawaharlal
Nehru University, New Delhi), Andrea Sangiovanni (Harvard University), Amartya Sen
(Trinity College, Cambridge), Emma Rothschild, Gareth Stedman Jones, and Rosie Vaughan
(Centre for History and Economics).
A one-day meeting was held on Democracy and Security in January 2003 in the Saltmarsh
Rooms in King’s College. Richard Tuck delivered a paper on Democracy and Terrorism, and
Melissa Lane presented a paper on Security, Compensation and the Purposes of the State.
Amongst participants were Ze’ev Emmerich (Faculty of Social and Political Sciences,
Cambridge), John Grimond (The Economist), Ross Harrison (Faculty of Philosophy and
King’s College, Cambridge), Istvan Hont (King’s College, Cambridge), Emma Rothschild,
Andrea SanGiovanni (Harvard University) and Gareth Stedman Jones.
A meeting on Democracy and Political Science in the 1950s was held in King’s College,
Cambridge on 2 July 2002. The meetings was based on a paper by Richard Tuck on Kenneth
Arrow and the High Theory of Democracy in the 1950s and examined the formative period of
late twentieth-century political ideas, in which the characteristic features of the modern
discussion of democracy were born. These include the analysis of the rationality of
conventional voting systems, associated with the work of Anthony Downs; the general theory
of preference aggregation, found in Kenneth Arrow’s work; and the contrasts between
‘totalitarian’ or ‘mass’ democracy (thought to have been at the heart of both Nazism and
Bolshevism) and liberal democratic politics. Amongst participants were Istvan Hont, Ross
Harrison, Melissa Lane and Richard Tuck.
In January 2002, a meeting was organised by Melissa Lane on Agency, Accountability and
Obligations of Corporations in King’s College, Cambridge. There were two sessions:
Corporations as Artificial Persons and Popular Acceptability and Accountability of Actions
by Corporations and their Interlocutors. Participants included Mark Bovens (Utrecht School
of Law), Simon Deakin (Judge Institute of Management, Cambridge), David Howarth
(Department of Land Economy and Clare College, Cambridge), Emma Rothschild, David
Runciman (Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Cambridge), Tom Sorell (Department of
Philosophy, University of Essex), Gareth Stedman Jones and Richard Tuck.
A meeting on The New Philanthropy and its Significance for International Institutions: The
Case of Health, organised by Melissa Lane, was held on 5-6 July 2001 in St Catharine’s
College, Cambridge. Participants included Lincoln Chen (Harvard Center for Population and
Development Studies), Joshua Cohen (Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT),
Helen Epstein (Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard), Tim Evans
(Rockefeller Foundation), Pratap Mehta (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), Emma
Rothschild, Carl Tham (Olof Palme International Center) and Richard Tuck. Background
papers for the conference were provided by Melissa Lane on Global Health and Global
Philanthropy: Issues for Democratic Theory, Lincoln Chen and Tim Evans on Public-Private
Partnerships in Global Health, Lincoln Chen (Centre for Population and Development
Studies, Harvard), Helen Epstein on AIDS in Africa: Globalization=s Achilles Heel, and Sunil
Amrith (Faculty of History and Christ’s College, Cambridge) on The Crisis of Public
Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The first meeting to plan the programme was held at Harvard on 16 September 2000, and was
attended by Melissa Lane, Richard Tuck, Emma Rothschild, Peter Hall (John F. Kennedy
School of Government, Harvard University), Istvan Hont, Andrew Moravcsik (Department of
Government, Harvard University), Pasquale Pasquino (School of Law, New York University)
and Anne-Marie Slaughter (John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University).
It was followed up by a meeting held at King’s College on 23 February 2001. Participants
included Joshua Cohen, Ross Harrison, David Held (LSE), Istvan Hont, Emma Rothschild,
David Runciman, Gareth Stedman Jones, Helen Thompson and Richard Tuck. The discussion
drew on Helen Thompson's research on the European Central Bank as a springboard to
address fundamental questions of sovereignty and accountability.