Steven Klein
Photo: Annette Hornischer

Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Florida

Daimler Fellow - Class of Fall 2019

Steven Klein is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Florida. He received a BA from the University of British Columbia and PhD from the University of Chicago. His work addresses questions about the nature of social domination in contemporary societies as well as the relationship between democratic action and the institutional structure of the welfare state and capitalism. His first book, The Work of Politics: Making a Democratic Welfare State (Cambridge, forthcoming), draws on the work of Max Weber, Hannah Arendt, and Jürgen Habermas to examine how social movements can use welfare institutions to transform structures of domination in society. In the history of political struggles in the welfare state, Klein points to examples such as the mobilization of German workers in nineteenth-century Germany and postwar feminist movements in Sweden. His articles have appeared in Sociological Theory, American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and Journal of Politics, as well as the Washington Post and The Baffler. In addition to support from the University of Chicago, Klein has held fellowships from the European University Institute, Mellon Foundation, Canada Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the “Transformations of the State” research cluster at the Universität Bremen.

Project Description

After Crisis: Karl Polanyi and the Politics of Capitalism

In his Academy project, “After Crisis: Karl Polanyi and the Politics of Capitalism,” Klein draws together the thought of Polanyi with the tradition of critical social theory to develop a vision of the democratic transformation of the capitalist economy. How do democratic norms of political equality apply to economic institutions in contemporary societies? Klein develops a democratic critique of present-day capitalism, identifying it as a regime of economic authoritarianism within thin, formally democratic institutions. The book advances a new, revisionist interpretation of Polanyi, showing he was committed to an expansive vision of popular-democratic control over, and participation in, managing the economy. Based on this theoretical reconstruction, Klein analyzes the normative and institutional preconditions of economic democracy, and examines the contemporary politics of debt as a stark instance of economic authoritarianism. In the end, he advances a set of concrete proposals for realizing economic democracy today, including directly-elected central banking boards, debt cooperatives, participatory economic governance, and national housing programs.

Academy Activities

05 Nov 19
Can Democracy Tame Twenty-First Century Capitalism? Political Science

Daimler Lecture

Can Democracy Tame Twenty-First Century Capitalism?

Steven Klein argues that recent economic crises are propelled by the long-term erosion of institutions built after the Second World War.

Read more
05 Nov 19

Can Democracy Tame Twentieth-Century Capitalism?

Steven Klein draws together the thought of Austro-Hungarian political economist Karl Polanyi with the tradition of critical social theory to develop a vision of the democratic transformation of the capitalist economy. ...

Read more
23 Oct 19

Fellow Spotlight: Steven Klein

Steven Klein asks how contemporary democracy is being affected by both public and private debt. ...

Read more
Back To Top