Hélène Landemore
Professor of Political Science, Director of Graduate Studies (Spring 2024)
Bio
Hélène Landemore is a professor of political science at Yale University with a specialization in political theory. Her research and teaching interests include, among other things, democratic theory, political epistemology, and the ethics and politics of artificial intelligence. She is also a fellow at the Ethics in AI Institute at the University of Oxford, and an advisor to the Democratic Inputs to AIprogram at OpenAI. She served on the Governance Committee of the most recent French Citizens’ Convention and is currently undertaking work supported by Schmidt Futures through the AI2050 program.
Contact
115 Prospect Street, Rosenkranz Hall, Room 201
1(203) 432-5824
helene.landemore@yale.edu
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Education
- Ph.D., Political Science, Harvard University 2008
- Master (with High Honors), Philosophy, Sorbonne-Paris I, 2001
- Master (with High Honors), Political Science, Sciences-Po, Paris, 2000
- Honorific, non-degree program in the Humanities, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris (Academic Merit scholarship), 1996-2000
Video
- 2023-04-12 - “New Economy Forum: The Great AI Dilemma - Balancing AI Risks and Opportunities,” International Monetary Fund 2023 Annual Meeting
- 2022-10-19 - “Can AI Bring Deliberation to the Masses?” Stanford Institute for Human Centered Artificial Intelligrence, Stanford University
- 2022-03-04 - “Is Democracy Doomed?” On Philosophy Digital Lecture Series, Spring 2022
- 2021-12-07 - “Artificial Intelligence in a Democractic Culture,” Institute for Ethics in AI, University of Oxford
- 2021-09-08 - “How to Fix Democracy 3,” Bertelsmann Foundation
- 2021-02-16 - “Artificial Intelligence in a Democractic Culture,” Institute for Ethics in AI, University of Oxford
- 2020-06-21 - “Experts versus Citizens in the French Convention on Climate Change,” Collective Intelligence Conference 2020
- 2020-05-15 - “Democracy in the Time of Cholera,” University of Iceland
- 2020-05-06 - Keynote speech for the International Conference “Civil Participation in Decision-Making”, Council of Europe
- 2020-04-23 - Le Jour d’Après, Atelier 8 with Loïc Blondiaux and Paula Forteza “Démocratie face à la crise: comment renouveler le pacte démocratique le jour d’après”
- 2019-03-28 - New College of the Humanities London - “Re-thinking Deliberation in the Wild: the Case of the French Great National Debate“ Conference “Improving Public Debate and Political Decision-Making: The Last Democracy Conference Before Brexit?”
- 2019-02-23 - Oxford University - “Remaking the UK Constitution.“ At time 1:04.
- 2018-09-14 - University of Pennsylvania - “Democracy in Trouble.”
- 2018-03-17 - Bellagio Center, Italy - “CrowdLaw Interviews.”
- 2018-01-18 - FLACSO, Santiago, “The 2010-2013 Icelandic Constitutional Process” Santiago, Chile
- 2018-01-17 - Mercurio, Santiago, Chile - “New Paradigms.”
- 2018-01-15 - Forum Empresario, Democracy 2050, Santiago, Chile - “Democracy 2050.”
- 2018-01-15 - Congreso Futuro, The Future of Democracy, Santiago, Chile - “Future Congress.”
- 2017-05-25 - Université de Montréal - “What does publicity do for/to the epistemic properties of democratic deliberation.”
- 2016-10-07 - Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos, Lisbon, Portugal - “Representative Democracy vs. Direct Democracy.”
- 2016-05-22 - Stjórnarskrárfélagið -The Icelandic Constitution Society - “Small Is Powerful”
- 2016-02-25 - Faculté de Philosophie de l’Université Laval, Québec - “L’entreprise démocratique: une autre voie vers la justice sociale.”
- 2014-04-09 - MacMillan Report, Yale University - “Re-thinking Democracy in the 21st Century.”
- 2013-04-26 - Institute for the Future. - “By the People? Crowdsourcing the Constitution in Iceland.”
- 2013-03-11 - Stanford University - “Constitution-Making in the Open? Transparency in the Icelandic Experiment.”
- 2008-05-22,23 - Collège de France, Paris - “Democratic Reason: the Mechanisms of Collective Intelligence in Politics.”
Audio
- 2020-06-26 - The Verdict: Law and Society Podcast, YTL Center, commentary on Joseph Raz’s lecture on democracy and legitimacy
- 2020-05-09 - Political Philosophy Podcast, “Open Democracy with Hélène Landemore”
- 2020-03-06 - Network Capital Podcast,”Understanding Open Democracy and Politics without Politicians”
- 2020-02-15 - France Culture, “Dernières nouvelles de la démocratie participative”
- 2016-07-25 - Real Democracy Now! Can we do democracy differently? A Podcast - “Why do deliberative mini-publics work.”
- 2015-04-24,25 - Chicago Law School - “What is a good constitution? Assessing the crowdsourced proposal in the Icelandic experiment.”
- 2014-07-24 - Insighttalkradio.com - “The Democratic Ideal.”
Publications
Books
- Democratic Reason: Politics, Collective Intelligence, and the Rule of the Many (Princeton, Princeton University Press 2013)
- Hume. Probabilité et choix raisonnable (Paris: PUF, 2004)
- Edited volume: Collective Wisdom: Principles and Mechanisms (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012). First editor, with Jon Elster
Peer Reviewed Articles
- “When Public Participation Matters: the 2010-2013 Icelandic Constitutional Process,” International Journal of Constitutional Law, forthcoming
- “Referendums Are Never Merely Referendums: On the Need to Make Popular Vote Processes More Deliberative.” Swiss Review of Political Science 24(3): 320–327, 2018
- “Political Epistemology in the Age of Alternative Facts: On World-Building, Truth-Tracking, and Arendtian Vacillations in Linda Zerilli’s A Democratic Theory of Judgment,” Political Theory 46(4): 611-623, 2018
- “Inclusive Constitution-Making and Religious Rights: Lessons from the Icelandic Experiment,” Journal of Politics 79(3): 762-779, 2017
- “Beyond the Fact of Disagreement? The Epistemic Turn in Deliberative Democracy,” Journal of Social Epistemology, forthcoming (accepted August 2016)
- “Unmasking the Crowd: Participants’ Motivation Factors, Expectations, and Profile in a Crowdsourced Law Reform” (with Tanja Aitamurto and Jorge S. Galli), Information, Communication, and Society, forthcoming (accepted August 2016)
- “Crowdsourced Deliberation: The Case of an Off-Traffic Law Reform in Finland” (with Tanja Aitamurto) Policy & Internet May 2016 DOI: 10.1002/poi3.115
- “In Defense of Workplace Democracy: Toward a Justification of the Firm/State Analogy” (first author, with Isabelle Ferreras) Political Theory 44(1): 53-81, 2016
- “Inclusive Constitution-Making: The Icelandic Experiment.” Journal of Political Philosophy 23(2): 166-191, 2015
- “Deliberation and Disagreement: Problem Solving, Prediction, and Positive Dissensus” (with Scott E. Page). Philosophy, Politics, and Economics 14(3) : 229-254, 2015
- “Neither Blind, nor Mute: Why the People Shouldn’t Give Up on the Voice.” Political Theory 42 (2): 192-197, 2014
- “Reasoning is for Arguing: Explaining the Successes and Failures of Deliberation” (second author, with Hugo Mercier), Political Psychology 33: 243-, 2012
- “Deliberation, Cognitive Diversity, and Democratic Inclusiveness: An Epistemic Argument for the Random Selection of Representatives.” Synthese 190(7): 1209-1231, 2012
- “Politics and the Economist-King: Is Rational Choice Theory the Science of Choice?” Journal of Moral Philosophy 1.2, 2004: 185-207
Classes taught - Undergraduate courses
- “Introduction to Political Philosophy” (lecture course), Fall 2017 and Fall 2018
- “How do we choose, and choose well” (lecture course), Spring 2015 and Fall 2015
- “Beyond Representative Government” (seminar), Spring 2014 and Fall 2015
- “Directed Studies” (History & Politics), Spring 2011 and Spring 2012
- “Justice in Western Thought” (lecture course), Fall 2009 and 2010
- “Freedom” (seminar) Spring 2010
Classes taught -Graduate Courses
- “Political Epistemology” (graduate seminar), Spring 2018
- “Deliberative Democracy and Beyond”, Spring 2010 and 2016
- “Philosophy of Science for the Study of Politics”, co-taught with Ian Shapiro
- “Research & Writing” (co-taught with Allan Dafoe), Fall 2013 and Spring 2014
- “Introduction to Political Theory,” co-taught with Ian Shapiro
- “Political Authority,” Spring 2011
Awards and Nominations
- 2018 - APSA “Ideas, Knowledge, and Politics” Best Book Award for Democratic Reason: Politics, Collective Intelligence, and the Rule of the Many (Princeton University Press 2013)
- 2017 - Nominated for the Brown Medal of Democracy (second and final round)
- 2015 - David and Elaine Spitz Prize (best book in liberal/democratic theory from two years earlier) for Democratic Reason: Politics, Collective Intelligence, and the Rule of the Many
- 2015 - Nominated for the Brown Medal of Democracy (first round)
- 2014-16 - ‘Enduring Questions’ competitive grant ($25,000) from the National Endowment for the Humanities for lecture course ‘How Do We Choose and Choose Well’
- 2010 - Montreal Political Theory Manuscript Workshop Award for then book manuscript Democratic Reason: Politics, Collective Intelligence, and the Rule of the Many