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Research Project

Economic Planning and Democratic Politics: History, Theory, and Practice

2023 – 2026

Key Question

Project Summary

Ever since the 2008 financial crisis, governments and central banks have aggressively intervened to address economic crises and challenges. These interventions have coincided with growing public mistrust of political and economic institutions. The interdisciplinary research team on this project will explore the range of possible relations between markets, states, and democracy in this new “post-neoliberal” period.

Research Team

Gary Herrigel

Gary Herrigel

Paul Klapper Professor in the College and the Division of the Social Sciences

University of Chicago

Gary Herrigel has been working on issues related to democracy and economic governance for many years. He has written two books examining historical efforts to construct democratic arrangements in markets in the U.S., Germany, and Japan. The interest in both books was in the relationship between...

Joel Isaac

Joel Isaac

Associate Professor of Social Thought and History

University of Chicago

Joel Isaac works on the history of modern economic, social, and political thought. His current book project, Fraught with Ought: Philosophy and the Social Sciences since Wittgenstein, examines the long and controversial debate about the distinction between "positive" and "normative"...

Matthew Landauer

Matthew Landauer

Associate Professor of Political Science

University of Chicago

Matthew Landauer's research focuses on political institutions and practices and the historical, conceptual, and normative questions they raise. Much of his research is on ancient Greece, which offers theorists models of politics that are at once seemingly familiar and strikingly different from...

Aaron Benanav

Aaron Benanav

Assistant Professor of Sociology; Senior Research Associate at the Autonomous Systems Policy Institute

Syracuse University

Aaron Benanav works on the history and future of work, technology, and employment. His first book, Automation and the Future of Work, offered a critical take on the contemporary “rise of the robots” thesis. The final chapter of that book situated contemporary automation discourses...

Project Narrative

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