David Ciepley

David Ciepley is a political theorist who works on the history and theory of corporations and constitutional states—two distinct but related governmental forms that have co-developed over time. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, was Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of Denver, and is now Associate Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. He is the author of “Beyond Public and Private: Toward a Political Theory of the Corporation” (American Political Science Review).

Ciepley is working on a book, Constitutional Democracy and the Corporation, that explores whether corporate economies are, or can be made, compatible with constitutional democracy. To this end, the book reconstructs the common corporate origins of modern constitutional democracy and the business corporation, relates their changing relations over time, and explores politically viable alternatives to the stockholder-dominated corporation, which is proving incompatible with constitutional democracy.