GIUSEPPE BALLACCI

CEPS FULL RESEARCHER

Giuseppe Ballacci is a Full Researcher at the Centre for Ethics, Politics and Society. He holds a PhD in Political Theory from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and has been visiting scholar at the Humboldt University of Berlin, the University of Chicago, RIPPLE – KU Leuven, associate researcher of the Centre de Théorie Politique at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, and visiting professor at the IE University, Madrid, and Vesalius College, Brussels.

He has written and researched on topics from both contemporary political theory and the history of political thought, especially on questions related to democratic theory, representation, populism, demagoguery, and rhetoric. His essays and reviews have appeared in journals such as Representation, Populism, Contemporary Political Theory, The Review of Politics, Theoria, Redescriptions, and Filosofický časopis (The Philosophical Journal). In 2018 he published Political Theory Between Philosophy and Rhetoric: Politics as Transcendence and Contingency (Palgrave MacMillan), a book in which he analyses the multifaceted significance of the ancient quarrel between rhetoric and philosophy for contemporary political theory. He is also the co-editor of a book titled Populism, Demagoguery and Rhetoric in Historical Perspective, to be published in 2024 with Oxford University Press. Currently, he is working on a book project on the concept of demagoguery in historical perspective.

Professional category

  • Full Researcher

Education

  • 2010. PhD in Political Theory at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
  • 2007. DEA (equivalent to a M.A.) in Political Science and Democratic Theory at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
  • 2001. B.A. in Economic and Social Sciences at Università Bocconi, Milan.

Other Info

Research interests

  • Democratic Theory (Political Representation, Populism, Deliberative Democracy, Theories of Recognition, Public/Private Divide)
  • Contemporary Political Theory (H. Arendt, L. Strauss, R. Rorty, E. Voegelin, etc.)
  • History of Political Thought (The Tradition of Rhetoric, Roman Political Thought, the Political Thought of Renaissance Humanism, from Petrarca, Machiavelli, to G. Vico)

Research fellowships

2011-2017. FCT Postdoctoral Researcher at CEHUM, University of Minho.

Institutional positions

2019 –. Full Researcher at the Centre for Ethics, Politics and Society.

2020-2022. Co-coordinator of the CEPS Seminar Series in Ethics and Political Philosophy.

2020-2021. Coordinator of the Political Philosophy Research Area in the Centre for Ethics, Politics and Society.

2017-2018. Adjunct Professor at IE University, Madrid.

2017-2018. Adjunct Professor at Vesalius College, Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

2016. Visiting Scholar at the Department of Social Sciences, Humboldt University of Berlin.

2016. Visiting Scholar at RIPPLE, KU Leuven.

2015-2016. Associate Researcher at the Centre de Théorie Politique of Université Libre de Bruxelles.

2013. Visiting Scholar at the Department of Political Science, University of Chicago.

Books

Book chapters

Articles

(forth.) w/ R. Goodman (eds.), Populism, Demagoguery, and Rhetoric in Historical Perspective, Oxford University Press.

2017Political Theory Between Philosophy and Rhetoric: Politics as Transcendence and Contingency, Palgrave MacMillan.

2014. “Actualizing Democratic Citizenship: Hannah Arendt and Classical Rhetoric on Judgment and Persuasion”, in P. Kitromilides (ed.), Athenian Legacies. European Debates on Citizenship, Leo S. Olschki, 381-411.

2023. w/ R. Goodman. “Populism as Form and Content: Toward a Holistic Approach”, Populism, 6(1), 1-29.

2023. “Nadia Urbinati on Populism, Representation, and Rhetoric: Some Critical Remarks”, Filosofický časopis (The Philosophical Journal), 69.

2022. “Constructivism, Democracy and Symbolic Representation: A Formal/Stylistic Perspective”, Representation: Journal of Representative Democracy, OnlineFirst.

2019. “Deliberative Agonism and Agonistic Deliberation in Hannah Arendt”, Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, 66(161), 1-24.

2019. “Representing Judgment – Judging Representation: Rhetoric, Judgment, and Ethos in Democratic Representation”, Contemporary Political Theory, 18(4), 519-540.

2017. “Richard Rorty’s Unfulfilled Humanism and the Public/Private Divide”, The Review of Politics,79(3), 427-450.

2015. “Reassessing the Rhetoric Revival in Political Theory: Cicero, Eloquence, and the Best Form of Life”, Redescriptions: Political Thought, Conceptual History and Feminist Theory, 18(2) 201-223.