Contact Info
E-mail: gballacci@elach.uminho.pt
Personal website:
https://uminho.academia.edu/GiuseppeBallacci
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 and Vesalius College.
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, and rhetoric. His articles have appeared, or are forthcoming, in journals such as Critical Review, Contemporary Political Theory, The Review of Politics, Representation, and Theoria. In 2018 he published Political Theory Between Philosophy and Rhetoric: Politics as Transcendence and Contingency (Palgrave MacMillan), which analyses the multifaceted significance of the quarrel between rhetoric and philosophy for political theory. He is also the co-editor of Populism, Demagoguery and Rhetoric in Historical Perspective (2024, Oxford University Press), which examines the historical roots of populism. He is currently working on a monograph on the concept of demagoguery in the history of political thought. On these topics, he has served as PI of two FCT-funded exploratory research projects, one concluded in 2024 and the other scheduled to begin in 2026.
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
- Short CV: Download CV
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
2024. w/ R. Goodman (eds.), Populism, Demagoguery, and Rhetoric in Historical Perspective, Oxford University Press.
2017. Political 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.