James Lindley Wilson

Dr. James Lindley Wilson is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago, specializing in democratic theory, political equality, and constitutional law. His research examines moral foundations of democracy including concepts of equality, authority, and institutional legitimacy. The monograph Democratic Equality (Princeton, 2019) develops a normative framework for evaluating democratic institutions through principles of equal political authority.

Core research areas:

• Normative justification of democratic institutions
• Constitutional design and electoral fairness
• Historical analysis of democratic thought
• Global justice and political membership
• Relationship between equality and autonomy

Current projects examine democratic responses to political violence and institutional backsliding. Teaching includes courses on racial justice, democratic theory, global justice, and classical political thought. Recent publications engage with boundary problems in democratic inclusion, majoritarian constraints in constitutional systems, and autonomy-based defenses of democracy.