Dimitrios Halikias studies political philosophy and the history of political thought. His current book project treats the reinterpretations of medieval feudalism that were deployed by nineteenth-century critics of liberalism and capitalism. Eighteenth-century republican and liberal thinkers took feudalism to be a synonym for tyranny and oppression. In the decades following the French Revolution, however, the normative and theoretical valence of feudalism was transformed. Radicals, reactionaries, and liberals alike found in medieval political economy an instructive foil for the newly depersonalized domination wrought by the amorphous power of public opinion, the market economy, bureaucratization, and constitutional representation. Tracing this intellectual history illuminates a theoretical vulnerability that afflicts a central commitment of the liberal political project: the abolition of the rule of man and the establishment of the rule of law.
Halikias’ other research interests concern debates over the idea of political will, the history and meaning of depoliticization, and the political philosophy of the American progressive movement. He holds a B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale College and a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University. His work has been supported by, among others, the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics and the Center for American Political Studies. His articles have been published or are forthcoming in History of Political Thought, The Historical Journal, and The Review of Politics.
