David Runciman

I’m a Professor of Politics at Cambridge University and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. I explore the history of politics and political ideas, and democracy.

My interest is in the history of politics and political ideas and particularly, democracy. Where does it comes from? How different is our democracy from democracy in the past? What might it become in the future? In parallel to my research, writing and teaching work, I hosted a weekly podcast called Talking Politics with 300 episodes between 2016 and 2022.

EXPs by David Runciman

Publications

Runciman, D. (2021). Confronting Leviathan, A History of Ideas. Profile Books.
Runciman, D. (2019). Where Power Stops. Profile Books.
Runciman, D. (2016). Political Theory and Real Politics in the Age of the Internet. Journal of Political Philosophy, 25.
Runciman, D. (2013). The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from World War I to the Present. Princeton University Press.
Brito Vieira, M., & Runciman, D. (2008). Representation. Cambridge University Press: Polity.
Runciman, D. (2010). Hobbes’ theory of representation: anti-democratic or proto-democratic? In I. Shapiro, S. Stokes, et al. (Eds.), Political Representation (pp. 15–34). Cambridge University Press.

All publications

Website

Talking Politics Podcast University of Cambridge London Review of Books

Shop

Confronting Leviathan: A History of Ideas

Where Power Stops

The Confidence Trap

How Democracy Ends