David Beetham: cv and publications
Degrees: BA in Classics, Philosophy and Ancient History, University of Oxford; MA
in Government, University of Manchester; PhD in Political Sociology, University of
Manchester.
Tenured positions: Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Manchester, 1966-71;
Lecturer, Senior Lecturer in Government, University of Manchester, 1971-79;
Professor of Political Science, University of Leeds, 1980-2003.
Honorary positions: Professor Emeritus, University of Leeds, 2003 onwards;
Visiting Fellow, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, 2003 onwards.
Research and publications: These fall into five overlapping fields:
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Critical analysis of European social and political thought, particularly of Max
Weber and his contemporaries.
Constructive analysis of key Weberian themes: bureaucracy and legitimation.
The theory and practice of democracy and democratisation.
Democracy assessment and methodology.
The philosophy and politics of human rights.
Teaching and supervision: I have taught courses at undergraduate and master’s
level, and undertaken doctoral supervisions and external examining, in all the above
fields; also courses on the history of political thought since the Greeks; the history of
economic thought from Adam Smith to the present; and the philosophy of the social
sciences.
Consultancies: Since 1995 I have undertaken a number of research consultancies:
Democratic Audit, London: designing a framework and methodology for assessing the
quality of democracy; applying it in successive audits of democracy in the UK.
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), Stockholm:
designing a democracy assessment framework applicable to all countries, and piloting
it with in-country partners in five continents.
Department for International Development, London: designing a governance
assessment framework to reflect the Department’s pro-poor policy agenda, and
helping pilot the framework in Indonesia and Nigeria.
UN Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa: helping design questionnaires
and research instruments for assessing democratic governance across Africa.
UNESCO, Paris: preparing a handbook on democratic theory and practice.
UN High Commission for Human Rights, Geneva: work on the relation between
human rights and democracy; also on the right to development.
Inter-Parliamentary Union, Geneva: designing and compiling a guide to good
practice for democratic parliaments, and developing a self-assessment toolkit for
parliamentarians, currently being piloted in a number of member parliaments.
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Publications
1. European social and political thought
Books
Max Weber and the Theory of Modern Politics, 1st edn., Allen and Unwin, 1974; 2nd
expanded edn., Polity Press, 1985. Translated into Chinese, Italian, Japanese and
Spanish.
Marxists in Face of Fascism, Manchester University Press and St. Martin’s Press,
New York, 1984.
Journal articles
‘Sorel and the Left’, Government and Opposition, 4, 1969, 308-323.
‘From socialism to fascism: the relation between theory and practice in the work of
Robert Michels’, part 1, Political Studies, 25, 1977, 3-24; part 2, ibid, 161-181.
‘Michels and his critics’, Archives Europeennes de Sociologie, 22, 1981, 81-99.
‘Die Max Weber Gesamtausgabe: Implikationen fur ein neues Werkverstandnis’,
Soziologische Revue, 9, 1986, 1-8.
‘Max Weber and the liberal political tradition’, Archives Europeennes de Sociologie,
30, 1989, 311-323; reprinted in A.Horowitz ed., The Barbarism of Reason, University
of Toronto Press, 1995, 87-101.
‘Max Weber and the legitimacy of the modern state’, Analyse und Kritik, 13, 1991,
34-45.
‘Max Weber et la legitimite politique’, Revue Europeenne des Sciences Sociales, 33,
1995, 11-22.
Book chapters
‘Mosca, Pareto and Weber: a historical comparison’, in W.J.Mommsen and
J.Osterhammel eds., Max Weber and his Contemporaries, Unwin Hyman, 1987, 139158; German version Max Weber und seine Zeitgenossen, Vandhoeck u. Ruprecht,
Gottingen, 1988, 216-241.
‘Reformism and the “bourgeoisification” of the labour movement’, in C.Levy ed.,
Socialism and the Intelligentsia, 1880-1914, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987, 106134.
‘Pareto et l’analyse critique de la democratie’, in A.Bouvier ed., Pareto aujourd’hui,
Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1999, 179-198.
‘Weber and Anglo-American Democracy: Analysis, Reception and Relevance’, in
Karl-Ludwig Ay and Knut Borchardt eds., Das Faszinosum Max Weber, UVK
Verlagsgesellschaft, Konstanz, 2006, 343-352.
Encyclopaedia entries
‘Ideal type’, ‘Max Weber’, in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, Macmillan
Press, 1987, vol.3, 713-4; vol.4, 886-8.
‘Max Weber’, in The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought, 1987, 544-7.
‘Roberto Michels’, in The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Institutions, 1987,
364-6.
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‘Max Weber’, in The Oxford Companion to the Politics of the World, OUP New
York, 1993, 971-2.
2. Constructive analysis of Weberian themes
Books
Bureaucracy, Open University Press and University of Minnesota Press, 1987; 2nd
revised and expanded edn., 1996. Translated into Estonian, Portuguese, Romanian,
Russian and Spanish.
The Legitimation of Power, Macmillan Press and Humanities Press, 1991 (chapter 1
translated into Japanese, Polish and Spanish). 2nd revised and expanded edn., Palgrave
Macmillan, 2013.
Legitimacy and the European Union, co-authored with Chris Lord, Longman, 1998.
Journal articles
‘In defence of legitimacy’, Political Studies, 41, 1993, 488-491.
‘Legitimizing the European Union’, co-authored with Chris Lord, Journal of Common
Market Studies, 39.3, 2001, 443-462.
Book chapter
‘Revisiting legitimacy, twenty years on’, in J.Tankebe and A.Liebling eds.,
Legitimacy and Criminal Justice, Oxford University Press, 2013, 19-36.
Encyclopaedia entries
‘Bureaucracy’, in The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought, 1987, 48-50.
‘Bureaucracy’, in The Routledge Dictionary of Theology and Society, 1996, 93-6.
‘Legitimacy’, in The Routledge Encyclopaedia of Democratic Thought, 2001, 408414.
‘Political legitimacy’, in The Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology, 2001, 107116.
‘Legitimacy’, 8000 word article for The International Encyclopaedia of Political
Science, Sage Reference, forthcoming, 2010-11.
3. Democratic theory and practice
Books
Introducing Democracy: 80 Questions and Answers, co-authored with Kevin Boyle,
UNESCO and Polity Press, 1995. Translated into 35 languages. 2nd revised and
expanded edn., UNESCO, 2010.
Democracy: A Beginner’s Guide, Oneworld Press, 2005. Translated into Korean.
Parliament and Democracy in the Twenty-first Century: a Guide to Good Practice,
Inter-Parliamentary Union, Geneva, 2006. Translated into Arabic, French, Serbian
and Spanish.
Unelected Oligarchy: Financial and Corporate Dominance in Britain’s Democracy,
Democratic Audit, 2011.
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Journal articles
‘Liberal democracy and the limits of democratisation’, Political Studies, 40, 1992, 4053; reprinted in D.Held ed., Prospects for Democracy, Polity Press, 1993, 55-73.
‘The Plant Report and the theory of representation’, Political Quarterly, 63, 1992,
460-467.
‘Four theorems about the market and democracy’, European Journal of Political
Research, 23, 1993, 187-201.
‘Conditions for democratic consolidation’, Review of African Political Economy, 60,
1994, 157-172.
‘Market economy and democratic polity’, Democratization, 4, 1997, 76-93; reprinted
in R.Fine and S.Rai eds., Civil Society: Democratic Perspectives, Frank Cass, 1997.
‘Political participation, mass protest and representative democracy’, Parliamentary
Affairs, 56.4, 2003, 596-609.
‘The contradictions of democratization by force: the case of Iraq’, Democratization,
16.3, 2009, 443-454.
‘Democracy: universality and diversity’, Ethics and Global Politics, 2.4, 2009, 281296.
Book chapters
‘Problems of democratic consolidation’, in P.Gifford ed., The Christian Churches and
the Democratisation of Africa, Brill, 1995, 99-112.
‘Theorising democracy and local government’, in D.King and G.Stoker eds.,
Rethinking Local Democracy, Macmillan, 1996, 28-49.
‘Democracy: key principles, institutions and problems’, in P.Cornillon ed.,
Democracy: its Principles and Achievement, Inter-Parliamentary Union, Geneva,
1998, 21-30. Translated into French and Spanish.
‘Structural and cultural preconditions for democracy’, in B.Berendsen ed., Democracy
and Development, KIT Publishers, Amsterdam, 2008, 173-186.
‘Do parliaments have a future?’, in S.Alonso, J.Keane and W.Merkel eds,. The Future
of Representative Democracy, Cambridge University Press, 2011, 124-143.
‘Evaluating new vs. old forms of citizen engagement and participation’, in B.Geissel
and K.Newton eds., Evaluating Democratic Innovations, Routledge, 2012, 56-68.
4. Democracy assessment and methodology
Books
Defining and Measuring Democracy, edited volume, Sage Publications, 1994;
‘Introduction’, 1-5; ‘Key principles and indices for a democratic audit’, 25-43.
Political Power and Democratic Control in Britain, co-authored with Stuart Weir,
Routledge, 1999.
Democracy under Blair, co-authored with Iain Byrne, Pauline Ngan and Stuart Weir,
Politico’s and Methuen, 2002
International IDEA Handbook on Democracy Assessment, co-authored with Sarah
Bracking, Iain Kearton and Stuart Weir, Kluwer Law International, The Hague, 2002.
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The State of Democracy: Democracy Assessments in Eight Nations around the World,
edited with Sarah Bracking, Iain Kearton, Nalini Vittal and Stuart Weir, Kluwer Law
International, 2002.
Power to the People? Assessing Democracy in Ireland, co-authored with Ian Hughes,
Paula Clancy and Clodagh Harris, TASC at New Island, 2007.
Assessing the Quality of Democracy: A Practical Guide, co-authored with Edzia
Carvalho, Todd Landman and Stuart Weir, International IDEA, Stockholm, 2008.
Translated into Arabic, French and Spanish.
Journal articles
‘Democratic Audit: New Labour’s Record So Far’, co-authored with Pauline Ngan
and Stuart Weir, Parliamentary Affairs, 54.2, 2001, 376-390.
‘Democratic Audit: An Inauspicious Year for Democracy’, with Pauline Ngan and
Stuart Weir, Parliamentary Affairs, 55.2, 2002, 400-415.
‘ Democratic Audit: Toward a Broader View of Democratic Achievement’, with Iain
Byrne, Pauline Ngan and Stuart Weir, Parliamentary Affairs, 56.2, 2003, 334-347.
‘Towards a Universal Framework for Democracy Assessment’, Democratization,
11.2, 2004, 1-17.
‘Freedom as the Foundation’, Journal of Democracy, 15.4, 2004, 61-75; reprinted in
L.Diamond and L.Morlino eds., Assessing the Quality of Democracy, Johns Hopkins
University Press, 2005, 32-46.
Book chapters
‘The Democratic Audit: Grundprinzipien und Schlusselindikatoren politischer
Demokratie’, in D.Campbell, K.Liebhart, R.Martinsen, C.Schaller and A Schedler
eds., Die Qualitat der osterreichischen Demokratie, Manz Verlag, Vienna, 1996, 1944.
‘Democratic Audit in Comparative Perspective’, co-authored with Stuart Weir, in HJLauth, G.Pickel and C.Welzel eds., Demokratiemessung, Westdeutscher Verlag,
Wiesbaden, 2000, 73-88.
‘Defining and Identifying a “Democratic Deficit”’, in R.Simeon and P.Lenard eds.,
Imperfect Democracies: The Democratic Deficit in Canada and the United States,
University of British Columbia Press, 2011, 76-90.
5. Philosophy and Politics of Human Rights
Books
Politics and Human Rights, edited volume for Special Issue of Political Studies, 1995;
also published by Blackwell, 1995. ‘Introduction: Human Rights in the Study of
Politics’, 1-9; ‘What Future for Economic and Social Rights?’, 41-60.
Diritti Umani e Democrazia Cosmopolitica, co-authored with Daniele Archibugi,
Feltrinelli, Milan, 1998.
Democracy and Human Rights, Polity Press, 1999. Translated into Chinese, Japanese
and Turkish.
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Book chapters
‘Human rights as a model for cosmopolitan democracy’, in D.Archibugi and D.Held
eds., Reimagining Political Community, Polity Press, 1998, 58-71.
‘Human Rights and Democracy’, in R.Axtmann ed., Understanding Democratic
Politics, Sage Publications, 2003, 22-30.
‘The right to development and its corresponding obligations’, in B.Andreassen and
S.Marks eds., Development as a Human Right, Harvard University Press, 2006, 7995.
‘Universality, historical specificity and cultural difference in human rights’, in
G.Gilbert, F.Hampson and C.Sandoval eds., Strategic Visions for Human Rights,
Routledge, 2011, 34-51.
‘Democratization and human rights: convergence and divergence’, in J.Haynes ed.,
Routledge Handbook of Democratization, Routledge, 2012, 381-394.
6. Miscellaneous
‘Excavating the foundations of political theory’, Government and Opposition, 15,
1980, 235-241.
‘The end of the nation state?’, in F.Felsenstein ed., University of Leeds Review, 26,
1983, 1-15.
‘The future of the nation state’, in G.McLennan, D.Held and S.Hall eds., The Idea of
the Modern State, Open University Press, 1984, 208-222.
‘Political theory and British politics’, in P.Dunleavy, A.Gamble, A.Holliday and
G.Peele eds., Developments in British Politics,4, Macmillan, 1993, 353-370.
7. Current work
I am currently working on a book-length collection of papers under the title
Democracy and Human Rights in a Globalized World.
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