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Professor Peter Stone

Associate Professor (Political Science)
3 COLLEGE GREEN
      
Profile Photo

Professor Peter Stone

Associate Professor (Political Science)
3 COLLEGE GREEN

 pstone@tcd.ie

 3531896 2491


Peter Stone received his B.A. in Political Science from Pennsylvania State University in 1993. While at Penn State, he completed a Senior Honors Thesis entitled "Towards the Empowerment of Labor: The Allende Experience." He then entered postgraduate study in Political Science at the University of Rochester, receiving an M.A. in 1996 and a Ph.D. in 2000. His Dissertation was entitled "The Luck of the Draw: Revisiting the Lot as a Democratic Institution." From 2003 to 2010 he was Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. He then spent a year as Faculty Fellow at Tulane University's Center for Ethics and Public Affairs before joining the Political Science Department at Trinity College Dublin in fall 2011. Stone specializes in political theory, especially such areas as democratic theory, theories of justice, rational choice theory, and the philosophy of social science. He is particularly concerned with questions involving the scope and limits of human reason. He is the author of The Luck of the Draw: The Role of Lotteries in Decision Making (Oxford University Press, 2011) and the editor of Lotteries in Public Life: A Reader (Imprint Academic, 2011). He has also worked extensively on the political philosophy of Bertrand Russell, about whom he has edited two books. He belongs to many professional societies, most notably the Political Studies Association of Ireland (for which he has served as President, Vice President, and Secretary) and the Bertrand Russell Society (in which he has held numerous leadership positions, including Vice Chair, Secretary, and Quarterly Newsletter Editor). When not working on political science, he enjoys swing dancing, the music of Leonard Cohen, and the occasional game of poker.
  BEHAVIORAL/SOCIAL SCIENCES   bertrand russell   citizen juries   Comparative political institutions   Condorcet Jury Theorem   Decision Making   DEMOCRACY   Democratic Equality   Formal Theory (Political Science)   Game Theory   Global Justice   INSTITUTIONS   JUSTICE   Lotteries   Political Methodology   Political Philosophy   Political Science   Political Theory   Rational Choice Theory   RATIONALITY   Theories of Global Justice
Details Date
Vice President, Political Studies Association of Ireland 2023-2024
President, Political Studies Association of Ireland 2019-2023
Secretary, Political Studies Association of Ireland 2016-2019
Co-Convenor, Political Theory Specialist Group, Political Studies Association of Ireland 2015-Present
Member, Executive Committee, Political Studies Association of Ireland 2015-2024
Vice President, Bertrand Russell Society 2015-2017
Political Theory Category Chair, Annual Meeting--European Political Science Association 2014
Review Editor, Foundations of Political Theory, Encyclopedia of Political Thought Project 2011-2013
Vice Chair, Bertrand Russell Society 2010-2015
Coordinator, Conference for the Study of Political Thought (Upstate New York Chapter) 2001-2003
Secretary of Society and Board, Bertrand Russell Society 1998-2001
Board Member, Bertrand Russell Society 1997-Present
External Examiner, Ph.D. Viva Voce Examination. Department of Politics, University of Exeter 2017
Editorial Board Member, Journal of Sortition 2024-Present
Extern, Political Theory Search, School of Politics and International Relations (SPIRe), University College Dublin 2013
Details Date From Date To
American Political Science Association
American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy
Association for Political Theory
Bertrand Russell Society
Britain and Ireland Association for Political Thought
Conference for the Study of Political Thought
Midwest Political Science Association
Political Studies Association
Political Studies Association of Ireland
ASAP (Academics Stand against Poverty) Ireland
Russell on Rousseau in, editor(s)Jahnabi Deka , Bertrand Russell Today, Nottingham, Spokesman Books, 2026, pp139 - 154, [Peter Stone], Book Chapter, IN_PRESS
Peter Stone, Politics in the Republic of Ireland, Then and Now, Irish Political Studies, 41, (1), 2026, p136 - 157, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Joanna Podgórska-Rykala and Peter Stone, Can the Decision-Making Process Be Open to Ordinary Citizens? On the Random Selection of Participants in Democratic Innovation, Przeglad Sejmowy, 1, (192), 2026, p125-145 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
Peter Stone, Basic Justice and the Minimally Good Life, Res Publica, 2026, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Peter Stone, Sortition as Democratic Utopia, Journal of Sortition, 1, (2), 2025, p387-402 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
From Deliberative Systems to Democracy in, editor(s)Min Reuchamps and Yanina Welp , Deliberative Constitution-Making: Opportunities and Challenges, Oxon, Routledge, 2024, pp47 - 59, [Peter Stone], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
John Garry, James Pow, Clifford Stevenson, and Peter Stone, Imaginative Policy Surveys in Divided Societies: Feasibility, Effect and Perceived Legitimacy, International Political Science Review, 45, (2), 2024, p243 - 260, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Peter Stone, Popular Rule without Popular Sovereigny, Democratic Theory, 2024, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Peter Stone and Audrey M. Plan, Trends in Theorizing Sortition, International Political Science Abstracts, 74, (2), 2024, p205 - 216, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Democracy and Equality of Opportunity in, editor(s)Mitja Sardoč, Michael A. Peters, and Les Jacobs , Handbook of Equality of Opportunity, Heidelberg, Springer, 2022, [Peter Stone], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  DOI  DOI
  

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Joanna Podgórska-Rykala and Peter Stone, Review of The Government of Chance: Sortition and Democracy from Athens to the Present, by Yves Sintomer , Democratization, 2026, Review, PUBLISHED
Peter Stone, Review of Death by a Thousand Cuts: Neuropolitics, Thymos, and the Slow Demise of Democracy (2nd ed.), by Matt Qvortrup , Democratization, 2026, Review, PUBLISHED
Journal of Sortition Editorial Board, Sortition: Past and Present, Journal of Sortition, 1, (1), 2025, p8 - 23, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Peter Stone, Review of The Collaborative Constitution, by Aileen Kavanagh , Irish Political Studies, 40, (3), 2025, p440-442 , Review, PUBLISHED
Peter Stone, Philip Pettit & The Birth of Ethics, Review of The Birth of Ethics: Reconstructing the Role and Nature of Morality, by Philip Pettit , Philosophy Now, (160), 2024, p18-19 , Review, PUBLISHED
Peter Stone, Review of Splitsville USA: A Democratic Argument for Breaking Up the United States, by Christopher F. Zurn , Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 2024, Review, PUBLISHED
Peter Stone, Review of The Tyranny of Opinion: Conformity and the Future of Liberalism, by Russell Blackford , Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 25, (2), 2022, p389-391 , Review, PUBLISHED
Peter Stone, Review of Hope for Democracy: How Citizens Can Bring Reason Back into Politics, by John Gastil and Katherine R. Knobloch , Perspectives on Politics, 20, (3), 2022, p1090-1091 , Review, PUBLISHED
Peter Stone, A Humanist from the Humanities, Review of Walter Kaufmann: Philosopher, Humanist, Heretic, by Stanley Corngold , Free Inquiry, 42, (4), 2022, p62-63 , Review, PUBLISHED
Peter Stone, Review of Why Does Inequality Matter?, by T.M. Scanlon , Philosophy Now, (150), 2022, p49-50 , Review, PUBLISHED

  


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Award Date
Outstanding Supervisor (Established Supervisor Award Category), School of Social Sciences & Philosophy 2025
Teaching and Learning Prize, Political Studies Association of Ireland 2024
Outstanding Supervisor (Established Supervisor Award Category), School of Social Sciences & Philosophy 2024
Lee Eisler Service Award, Bertrand Russell Society 2022
Bertrand Russell Society Book Award 2017
M.A. (jure officii), University of Dublin. 2015
Best C&M Working Paper Award, Committee on Concepts and Methods, International Political Science Association 2014
I am a political theorist, with a research focus on the politics of random selection (selection via lottery). Lotteries are used both to allocate social benefits and burdens (e.g., admission to oversubscribed courses in Irish universities) and to assign public responsibilities (e.g., service in Ireland's Convention on the Constitution and subsequent Citizens' Assemblies). I have developed a systematic theory of random selection focused upon the ability of lotteries to exclude undesirable reasons from decision making, which I call the sanitizing effect. I have articulated this theory in a series of peer-reviewed articles in top political science journals, culminating in a single-authored peer-reviewed monograph (Oxford University Press, 2011). Since then, I have focused my research on sortition, the random selection of political officials, and the relationship between sortition and democracy. I have produced a series of peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters both documenting the many advantages and disadvantages of sortition and comparing the democratic credentials of sortition, election, and referenda. This research in democratic theory has led me to work on militant democracy, the practice whereby democracies protect themselves against extremist political movements. I am currently working with my Ph.D. student on a series of journal articles on militant democracy which will hopefully lead to a jointly-authored book. My secondary research agenda concerns the philosophy of Bertrand Russell. My current work on militant democracy relates to this work through Russell"s writings against totalitarianism; this has resulted in a forthcoming paper on Russell"s views on Rousseau and should result in further papers in the future. Overall, I have a proven track record as an international researcher, with xxxxx peer-reviewed publications to date. This work has received sustained scholarly attention, with a citation count of 1145 on Google Scholar (h-index 15), 414 on Scopus (h-index 10), and 734 on ResearchGate (h-index 12).