Biography

Doug Thompson’s research interests include comparative political theory, history of political thought, democratic theory, and contemporary metropolitics. His work in political theory often intersects with research in other subfields of political science—especially public administration and American political development. He is the author of Montaigne and the Tolerance of Politics (Oxford University Press, 2018), and his research has appeared in The Journal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics, Political Theory, and other journals and edited volumes in both French and English.  

His current book project is titled “Indispensable Bureaucracy: A New Global History of Political Ideas, from Ancient Mesopotamia to the Present.” It provides a radically new perspective on the history of political thought by recentering the work of bureaucracy and bureaucrats in the 5,000-year global history of human political writing.  

Doug Thompson is Co-President of the Association for Political Theory and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Political Science at USC.