Steven Klein
King's College London, Department of Political Economy, Faculty Member
- European University Institute, Max Weber Fellow, Post-DocUniversity of Chicago, Political Science, AlumnusUniversity of Florida, Political Science, Faculty Memberadd
- Political Science, Critical Theory, Political Theory, Continental Philosophy, Intellectual History, Democratic Theory, and 78 moreJurgen Habermas, Marxism, History of Political Thought, Theodor Adorno, Frankfurt School, Hannah Arendt, Max Weber, Welfare State, History of Social Policy and the Welfare State, Feminist Theory, Feminist Political Theory, Social Theory, Karl Polanyi, Political Sociology, Political Philosophy, Socialism, Social and Political Philosophy, Democracy, Colonialism, Republicanism, Contemporary Political Theory, Political Economy, Philosophy, Radical Democracy, Comparative Politics, History of Ideas, Democratization, Liberalism, Weimar Republic, Representation, Political Representation, Representation Theory, Social Sciences, Sociology, Modern Political Thought, Social Democracy, Political History, Labour history, Social Policy, History of Economic Thought, Social Justice, Equality, Socialisms, Distributive Justice, German History, 20th Century German History, German Politics, German Philosophy, 19th-century German philosophy, Martin Heidegger, German Studies, Politics, European Politics, Social Movements, Governance, European Union, Agonism, Populism, Gender Equality, Deliberative Democracy, Philosophy Of Law, History, Critical Social Theory, Social Science, Critical Political Economy, Government, History of Capitalism, Capitalism, Marxist political economy, Social History, Economic History, History Of Political Thought (Political Science), History of Political Economic Thought, Economics, Economy, Economic Sociology, Cultural Theory, and Cultural Studiesedit
- I am a Lecturer of Political Theory in the Department of Political Economy, King's College London. My research has fo... moreI am a Lecturer of Political Theory in the Department of Political Economy, King's College London. My research has focused on democratic theory, critical social theory, theories of political economy and the welfare state, the theory and politics of European integration, and the history of European social and political thought (especially of 19th- and 20th-century Germany). My first book, The Work of Politics: Making a Democratic Welfare State (CUP 2020), examines the democratic potential of struggles over welfare institutions. I am also working on a second book project that draws together the thought of Karl Polanyi with the tradition of critical social theory to develop an account of the contemporary politics of finance, debt, and money. In Fall 2019, I was a Berlin Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. Before coming to KCL, I was an Assistant Profesor of Political Science at the University of Florida and a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute. I completed my PhD at the University of Chicago in 2016.edit
The 2008 financial crisis and ensuing Eurozone crisis were more than just economic shocks. They revealed tensions in the fundamental structure of postwar democratic capitalism. In this talk, Steven Klein argues that recent economic crises... more
The 2008 financial crisis and ensuing Eurozone crisis were more than just economic shocks. They revealed tensions in the fundamental structure of postwar democratic capitalism. In this talk, Steven Klein argues that recent economic crises are propelled by the long-term erosion of institutions built after the Second World War, which were only ever partially democratic. Inspired by the work of Hungarian economic sociologist Karl Polanyi (1886–1964), who traced the breakdown of European society to the tension between democracy and capitalism, Klein analyzes capitalism as a form of economic authoritarianism nestled in formally democratic institutions. He then grapples with the implications of three key transformations that have emerged since Polanyi was writing: decolonization and the changing dynamics of global political economy, the rise of debt and credit as central pillars of the economy, and the technological shifts towards more service-oriented capitalism.
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The Work of Politics advances a new understanding of how democratic social movements work with welfare institutions to challenge structures of domination. Klein develops a novel theory that depicts welfare institutions as “worldly... more
The Work of Politics advances a new understanding of how democratic social movements work with welfare institutions to challenge structures of domination. Klein develops a novel theory that depicts welfare institutions as “worldly mediators,” or sites of democratic world-making fostering political empowerment and participation within the context of capitalist economic forces. Drawing on the writings of Weber, Arendt, and Habermas, and historical episodes that range from the workers' movement in Bismarck's Germany to post-war Swedish feminism, this book challenges us to rethink the distribution of power in society, as well as the fundamental concerns of democratic theory. Ranging across political theory and intellectual history, The Work of Politics provides a vital contribution to contemporary thinking about the future of the welfare state.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Political Sociology, Social Movements, Comparative Politics, Political Philosophy, and 13 moreSocial Policy, Political Theory, Welfare State, Democratic Theory, Political Science, Critical Social Theory, Jurgen Habermas, History of Political Thought, Democracy, Social and Political Philosophy, Hannah Arendt, Max Weber, and Power and domination
What is the value and function of democratic institutions? One prominent and powerful answer could be broadly called “liberal proceduralist”: democratic institutions, by embodying fair procedures for resolving disagreements, constitute or... more
What is the value and function of democratic institutions? One prominent and powerful answer could be broadly called “liberal proceduralist”: democratic institutions, by embodying fair procedures for resolving disagreements, constitute or contribute to a politically valuable ideal of relational equality. As attractive as it is, this view falters because it rests on a flawed view of democratic institutions. In place of the liberal proceduralist view, I develop a democratic power approach. The democratic power approach advances a dynamic account of democratic institutions, one that focuses on how procedures and outcomes, taken together as having effects on the organization of power in society, sustain valuable relationships of social equality.
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Karl Polanyi’s critique of the ideal of the self-adjusting market is increasingly invoked to challenge the negative effects of European integration on national social welfare systems. However, these debates have been caught in an... more
Karl Polanyi’s critique of the ideal of the self-adjusting market is increasingly invoked to challenge the negative effects of European integration on national social welfare systems. However, these debates have been caught in an unhelpful opposition between European market openness and national social closure. Challenging common interpretations of Polanyi, this article shows that he develops a theory of the relationship between democratic reciprocity and what the article calls “nonmarket modes of economic coordination.” The problem is not reconciling openness with closure but navigating the dilemmas of democratic capitalism. The article then uses this framework to critique the one-sided nature of European law as well as recent calls for a “social Europe.” The article criticizes these efforts, arguing that the fate of social Europe is bound to the economic and political dynamics unleashed by the project of monetary integration.
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The democratic question of capitalism—of whether capitalist economic structures and their characteristic forms of power are compatible with democratic principles—is unsettled. This article draws together the social and political theory of... more
The democratic question of capitalism—of whether capitalist economic structures and their characteristic forms of power are compatible with democratic principles—is unsettled. This article draws together the social and political theory of Jürgen Habermas and Karl Polanyi to develop a general framework for critically analyzing the relationship between capitalism and democracy. Critiquing Habermas’s thought for narrowing capitalism to money-mediated exchange, it uses a novel reconstruction of Polanyi’s social theory to expand Habermas’s system/lifeworld framework. It then shows how Polanyi’s social theory provides theoretical resources for understanding the central role of the politics of money, credit, and debt in capitalist societies. As capitalist societies have moved from an era of welfare state capitalism to debt-fueled growth, political conflicts over debt are increasingly important sites for the potential democratization of the economy.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Finance, Sociology, Economic Sociology, Political Economy, and 14 morePhilosophy, Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Marxism, Democratic Theory, Political Science, Critical Social Theory, Jurgen Habermas, Banking, Capitalism, Karl Polanyi, Deliberative Democracy, Democracy, and Social and Political Philosophy
This article develops a conceptual framework to theorize the processes of mutual penetration between civil society, the state, and the economy, where incumbents and challengers continuously formulate new strategies against each other. We... more
This article develops a conceptual framework to theorize the processes of mutual penetration between civil society, the state, and the economy, where incumbents and challengers continuously formulate new strategies against each other. We criticize the prevailing Weberian and Tocquevillian concepts of civil society, and then, drawing on research in social movements and comparative political economy, propose a new framework: the politics of forward and backward infiltration. Under each form of infiltration, we delineate three sub-modes: the politics of influence, the politics of substitution, and the politics of occupation, which correspond to strategies for discursive influence, functional replacement, and institutional takeover , respectively. We challenge the exclusive focus on 'the politics of influence' as inadequate for analyzing these processes, while highlighting the other two modes as necessary additions. Finally, we elucidate the implications of our theory of forward and backward infiltration for the study of civil society and participatory democracy more generally.
Research Interests: Sociology, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Movements, Social Theory, and 15 moreComparative Politics, Organizational Theory, Social Sciences, Welfare State, Democratic Theory, Political Science, Civil Society and the Public Sphere, Deliberative Democracy, Social Movements (Political Science), Sociological Theory, Comparative Welfare Systems, Democracy, Governance and Civil Society, Civil Society, and New social movements
Prominent republican theorists invoke anonymous orders such as the market as mechanisms that secure freedom as non-domination. Drawing on Karl Polanyi's account of fictitious commodities and demonstration of the impossibility of a just... more
Prominent republican theorists invoke anonymous orders such as the market as mechanisms that secure freedom as non-domination. Drawing on Karl Polanyi's account of fictitious commodities and demonstration of the impossibility of a just and rational market society, this article critically scrutinizes neo-republican assumptions regarding the market, develops an alternate social theory within which to situate the ideal of non-domination, and illustrates the importance of this reconfiguration for the kind of collective agents and political strategies that can be expected to advance republican freedom in the economy.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Industrial And Labor Relations, History, Intellectual History, Economic History, and 29 moreSociology, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Theory, Economics, Political Economy, Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Marxism, Democratic Theory, Republicanism, Political Science, Critical Social Theory, Markets, Comparative Political Economy, History of Capitalism, Capitalism, Karl Polanyi, History of Political Thought, Democracy, Moral Philosophy, Social and Political Philosophy, Marxist political economy, Labor unions, Exploitation, Power and domination, Philip Pettit, and Political Economy and History
Prominent strands of contemporary democratic theory, by figuring genuine democratic agency as fundamentally disruptive, present conventional social and political institutions merely as sites of calculation and normalization. This article... more
Prominent strands of contemporary democratic theory, by figuring genuine democratic agency as fundamentally disruptive, present conventional social and political institutions merely as sites of calculation and normalization. This article challenges such a view by tracing its origins in Max Weber's theory of domination. Even as many democratic theorists repudiate the political consequences of Weber's thought, they fail to fully confront the socio-theoretic categories underpinning his vision, such that these categories continue to structure conceptions of democratic agency and horizons of practical possibility in democratic theory. Here, I argue that Weber's democratic-skepticism arises not, as is commonly thought, from a philosophical repudiation of the concept of legitimacy, but rather from his analysis of the origins of value-systems in extraordinary ruptures with everyday experience. To move beyond Weber, democratic theorists must challenge both his distinction between the ordinary and the extraordinary and his reduction of institutional politics to domination and technical control.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, History, Intellectual History, Sociology, Social Theory, and 16 morePolitical Economy, Philosophy, Political Philosophy, History of Ideas, Social Sciences, Political Theory, Democratic Theory, Political Science, History of Political Thought, Democracy, Intellectual and cultural history, Max Weber (Philosophy), Social and Political Philosophy, Radical Democracy, Max Weber, and Bureaucracy
What is the significance of the welfare state and struggles over social and economic needs for democratic politics? This article turns to Hannah Arendt’s thought to articulate new possibilities for relating democratic agency and the... more
What is the significance of the welfare state and struggles over social and economic needs for democratic politics? This article turns to Hannah Arendt’s thought to articulate new possibilities for relating democratic agency and the welfare state, possibilities neglected by currently dominant deliberative and radical democratic approaches. Against critics who claim that Arendt seeks to purify politics of economic and social problems, I argue that she presents a sophisticated account of the vital importance of economic matters for public life. For Arendt, the danger is not the invasion of politics by economics, but rather the loss of the worldly, mediating institutions that allow economic matters to appear as objects of public concern. Reconstructing her account of these mediating institutions, I show that Arendt’s analysis opens up novel insights into the relationship between democratic action and welfare institutions, drawing attention to how such institutions transform material necessity into shared objects of attachment, judgment, and action.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, History, Sociology, Political Sociology, Comparative Politics, and 26 morePolitical Economy, Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Social Policy, Social Sciences, Political Theory, German History, Welfare State, Democratic Theory, Political Science, Jurgen Habermas, Continental Philosophy, Jacques Rancière, History of Social Welfare, Socialism, Hannah Arendt, Radical Democracy, Public Policy - Social Welfare Policy, German Intellectual History, History of Social Policy and the Welfare State, Social Democracy, Social Welfare, Contemporary Continental Philosophy, Nancy Fraser, Feminist Political Theory, and Jürgen Habermas
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Review of Karl Polanyi Economy and Society: Selected Writings in the LA Review of Books
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Essay about Habermas and the public sphere in Aeon
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Short essay in Democracy: A Journal of Ideas responding to Jeremy Adelman, "Polanyi, the Failed Prophet of Moral Economics," Boston Review (May 30, 2017)
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This seminar explores recent debates in political theory. Questions we will pursue include: what is the nature and basis of social critique? How should political theorists analyze normative concepts like equality and how do such analyses... more
This seminar explores recent debates in political theory. Questions we will pursue include: what is the nature and basis of social critique? How should political theorists analyze normative concepts like equality and how do such analyses relate to the real world? What is the role of identity and subjectivity in politics? In the last portion of the course, we will examine the tools provided by political theory for addressing recent political problems: the return of unregulated capitalism, the increasing importance of global interconnections and migration flows, and looming environmental risks.
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This seminar will introduce you to the field of political theory and encourage you to reflect on the relationship between theoretical and normative concepts and the scientific study of politics. We will examine the main debates within... more
This seminar will introduce you to the field of political theory and encourage you to reflect on the relationship between theoretical and normative concepts and the scientific study of politics. We will examine the main debates within political theory as well as debates about the relationship between theory and political science and between theory and political practice. Theories and topics we will consider include pragmatism, liberalism, realism, critical social theory, post-structuralism, theories of race, gender, and colonialism, and different approaches to the history of political thought. Beyond familiarizing you with the major debates in political theory, this course will teach you how to reflect on the concepts and commitments that inform your work.
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This seminar explores the concept of democracy from a variety of historical, normative, and institutional perspectives. We will investigate the value of democracy as an ideal, examine the diverse historical meanings that have congealed... more
This seminar explores the concept of democracy from a variety of historical, normative, and institutional perspectives. We will investigate the value of democracy as an ideal, examine the diverse historical meanings that have congealed around the term, and inquire into the different institutional mechanisms and practices that could realize the value of democracy. Questions we will pursue include: how does “modern” democracy relate to “ancient” democracy? How has thinking about democracy evolved over the 20th century (elitist, pluralist, deliberative, etc. democracy)? What is the meaning of political equality and democratic citizenship? How does the normative evaluation of democracy relate to the empirical study of democratic regimes? What are the relative merits of the different institutional mechanisms of democracy (elections, referenda, sortation, non-electoral representation)? How do democratic practices intersect with broader structures of inequality and domination in society?
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Even as more and more countries make gender equality a goal of public policy, gender hierarchies persevere across a range of contexts and metrics. What explains the persistence of gender inequalities? What are the mechanisms that... more
Even as more and more countries make gender equality a goal of public policy, gender hierarchies persevere across a range of contexts and metrics. What explains the persistence of gender inequalities? What are the mechanisms that reproduce these inequalities? What public policies and political approaches have the best ability to overcome gender hierarchy? Finally, how is gender (in)equality at the societal level linked to within-household inequalities? To what extent does gender inequality emerge within families? How much of it is a by-product of a wider societal system? Bringing together the approaches of scholars in sociology, political theory, and economics, this day-long multidisciplinary workshop will feature innovative research that examines, from a variety of methodological and thematic perspectives, the persistence of gender inequality. The workshop will feature three panels as well as two keynote speakers. Each panel will focus on a different aspect of gender inequality: (1) Social Policy and the Welfare State; (2) Labor Markets; and (3) Household Inequality.