Matching records
Sorted by relevance- ThinkerAlbert O. HirschmanEconomist who framed exit and voice as the two responses to decline in firms, organisations and states.
- ThinkerAlexis de TocquevilleFrench political scientist and politician whose Democracy in America (1835–40) analysed how equality of conditions shapes politics, and warned of centralisation, apathy and a mild despotism.
- ThinkerArend LijphartDutch-born American political scientist who developed the theory of consociational democracy and compared majoritarian and consensus models of democracy.
- ThinkerAristotleGreek philosopher whose Politics classified constitutions by who rules and whether they rule for the common advantage; a founding text of comparative political analysis and the mixed constitution.
- ThinkerAudrey TangCivic hacker from the g0v community; served as Taiwan's digital minister from 2016 to 2024.
- ThinkerBalaji SrinivasanEntrepreneur and investor; author of The Network State (2022).
- ThinkerBruce L. BensonEconomist who argued that law can be, and historically often was, produced without the state.
- ThinkerCharles TieboutEconomist whose 1956 model described residents 'voting with their feet' among local jurisdictions.
- ThinkerDavid D. FriedmanEconomist who made the consequentialist case for anarcho-capitalism in The Machinery of Freedom (1973).
- ThinkerDavid GraeberAmerican anthropologist and anarchist activist known for Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), critiques of bureaucracy and work, and a leading role in the Occupy movement.
- ThinkerE. Glen WeylEconomist; developed quadratic voting and co-authored Radical Markets (2018) with Eric Posner.
- ThinkerElinor OstromPolitical economist who showed how communities govern common-pool resources; shared the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
- ThinkerEric A. PosnerLegal scholar; co-author of Radical Markets (2018).
- ThinkerFriedrich HayekAustrian-born economist and social theorist who argued that dispersed knowledge makes central planning unworkable and that grown rules and markets form spontaneous orders; Nobel laureate 1974.
- ThinkerHannah ArendtGerman-born American political theorist who analysed totalitarianism and argued that political freedom consists in acting together with others in a public space.
- ThinkerHélène LandemorePolitical theorist who argues for 'open democracy' built around randomly selected assemblies; author of Open Democracy (2020).
- ThinkerJames C. ScottPolitical scientist and anthropologist who studied how states make societies legible and how people evade state control.
- ThinkerJames M. BuchananAmerican economist, founder of the Virginia school of public choice; with Gordon Tullock wrote The Calculus of Consent (1962); Nobel laureate in economics 1986.
- ThinkerJames MadisonAmerican statesman and fourth US president; principal architect of the 1787 Constitution and author of Federalist No. 10, which argued that a large republic can better control the effects of faction.
- ThinkerJames S. FishkinAmerican political scientist at Stanford who devised deliberative polling, a method that combines random samples of citizens with structured deliberation.
- ThinkerJean-Jacques RousseauGenevan philosopher whose Social Contract (1762) argued that a state is legitimate only if guided by the general will of its members, and that sovereignty cannot be represented.
- ThinkerJohn LockeEnglish philosopher who grounded legitimate government in consent and natural rights, and defended a right to resist rulers who violate the trust placed in them.
- ThinkerJohn RawlsAmerican philosopher whose A Theory of Justice (1971) revived social-contract theory and set out justice as fairness, including the original position and the difference principle.
- ThinkerJohn Stuart MillEnglish philosopher and political economist who defended individual liberty against both state and social coercion, and argued for representative government that protects minorities.
- ThinkerJürgen HabermasGerman philosopher of the Frankfurt School's second generation; theorist of the public sphere, communicative action and a discourse theory of law and democracy.
- ThinkerMontesquieuFrench jurist and philosopher whose The Spirit of the Laws (1748) classified governments and argued that liberty is best protected when legislative, executive and judicial power are divided.
- ThinkerMurray BookchinAmerican social theorist who founded social ecology and later advocated libertarian municipalism, a confederation of directly democratic municipal assemblies.
- ThinkerMurray RothbardEconomist and theorist of anarcho-capitalism; author of For a New Liberty (1973).
- ThinkerPaul RomerEconomist who proposed charter cities; shared the 2018 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for work on endogenous growth.
- ThinkerPeter KropotkinAnarchist thinker and naturalist who argued in Mutual Aid (1902) that cooperation is a major factor in evolution.