Examining democracy’s foundations
Joshua Stom, fifth-year UC Irvine political science Ph.D. student, has received a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. The award will support completion of his dissertation which examines the recent rise of “realism” in democratic theory. Below, the Amsterdam native with an undergrad from the University of Amsterdam and master’s from the University of Chicago shares more about his interests in political theory, his research, and his plans post-grad.
Q: What made you decide to pursue your current field of study, and specifically at UCI? What interests you most about your work?
A: Human beings are social beings (though living in Irvine can sometimes make you doubt it). Perhaps in some distant dystopian future, humans will be able to live self-sufficient lives as cyber-organic beings. But so long as that is not the case, we are forced to deal with one another and share in the work of identifying common goods and making collective decisions. This, to my mind, is what makes political science, and political theory in particular, the first science among others. Medicine may preserve life, and economics may manage the goods such life requires. Yet only political science asks what things like “life” are worth in the first place (can soldiers be asked to die for their country?). The answers we supply in response to our questions are perhaps more contentious than those provided by hard scientists, but the questions themselves are too beautiful to abandon for this reason alone. UCI has been very a comfortable home for me to pursue these questions in.
Q: Tell us about your research. What problem will your findings help solve?
A: My dissertation examines the recent rise of “realism” in democratic theory. Realists argue that much political thought has become too moralistic, too idealized, and too detached from the realities of politics, leaving us without adequate guidance for the challenges democracy faces today. Politics, on their view, is not about realizing some distant ideal of justice (say); it is about power, and about containing the harms that arise when people struggle for it, such as violence and domination. My project takes the realist challenge seriously but is also critical of some of its claims. What I find, for example, is that realism offers too thin a defense of democracy to secure lasting allegiance. A democracy defended only as a mechanism for avoiding catastrophe is unlikely to command such allegiance. No one goes out to vote thinking “alright, let’s go out and prevent the next civil war.” No. People generally go out to vote expecting that politicians will listen to them and make decisions based on their wishes (even if, in practice, politicians often fail to do so). It is a reasonable expectation, and any viable theory of democracy has to do something with that.
Q: Where can your work be found if someone wanted to learn more about your research? Any publications to point to?
A: So far, I have only managed to publish one peer-reviewed article Unveiling Disputes in Representation’s Constructivist Turn: Lisa Disch and Deliberative Democracy, published in Representation Journal. It makes a modest intervention the constructivist turn now unfolding in the field of political representation. My basic argument was that certain constructivists tend to emphasize the creative autonomy of political representatives without adopting a sufficiently critical view of how constituents might exercise a meaningful voice of their own. Another paper, on the Polish-American political scientist Adam Przeworski, is currently under review. This information is also listed on my website, where you find out about my other (for now, minimal) achievements.
Q: What organizations, foundations, etc. have funded your research while you’ve been at UCI?
A: Next to UCI and now the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation, my gratitude also goes out to the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, whose early summer funding sustained me at a crucial point in the program and allowed me to expand my diet from water and bread to include cheese, beer, and books. I feel proud that the Netherlands, a small country, is nonetheless big enough in spirit to sustain foundations capable of supporting the ambitions of its citizens abroad. To all my folks back home, lekker bezig.
Q: What are some of your proudest accomplishments while at UCI?
A: Winning this fellowship means a great deal. As a student, you spend much of the year working on these applications while also trying to finish your dissertation and keep up with your other responsibilities. A great deal of time and hope goes into them, so when one of them actually comes through, the pay-off is considerable in terms of emotion. To be clear, the fellowship should help me write a better dissertation. This should be my proudest accomplishment were you to ask me this question again next year.
Q: Who have been your faculty mentors while here, and what impact have they had on your graduate career?
A: Alongside the chance to read books full-time, the gift of new friendships, and my soon-to-be spouse, UCI also gave me my advisor, Professor Simone Chambers, for whom I have the highest regard. Simone would be humble enough to deny this, but to me she seems to have mastered nearly every argument available in our tradition. That mastery shows in her ability to communicate those arguments with extraordinary clarity, in a manner that is at once simple and to the point. Political theory has its share of people who, out of a sense of intellectual vulnerability (I think), feel compelled to hide their own thoughts behind other renowned scholars or elaborate conceptual schemes. Simone does not. I have never heard her say a word of nonsense; and, what can be tough to process at times, she has also never accepted a word of nonsense on my part. Simone is only interested in the reasonable quality of arguments, and I deeply respect this attitude as well as the depth of her knowledge.
Q: When do you plan to complete your Ph.D.? What are your plans thereafter? How has UCI prepared you well for this role?
A: Any personal crises or accidents aside (I am an optimist, after all), the dissertation should be finished by the summer of 2027. Then, I plan to continue my studies as a political theorist, most likely as a post-doctorate researcher. UCI prepared me for this next step, first, by giving me the kind of mentorship I needed, and second, by placing me in conversation with legions of other interesting scholars around the world.
Q: Any unique life experiences that have guided your educational journey? Give us some background.
A: If you grow up in an environment where attending university is not culturally or financially self-evident, then something like pursuing a Ph.D.—or wilder still, pursuing one at a top U.S. school—does not even appear on your horizon as a real possibility. It is not simply that you doubt whether you could do it; you may not even have the means of understanding that such a path exists. In those situations, you need someone else to broaden your horizon. I was fortunate enough to have such a person: Michael Eze, my African political theory teacher. Who knows whether he would still recognize me if we were to cross paths? But I certainly will not forget him. A philosophical and empathetic man, a rare combination. A pleasant man, too.
Q: Any other tidbits you’d like to share?
A: I am entering the academic job market this year. If you are in a position to hire a new political theorist, do not miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: stomj@uci.edu!