Samuel Bagg

Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of South Carolina, Samuel Bagg specializes in Democratic Theory and Critical Realism. His research addresses systemic threats to democracy, particularly elite capture and institutional vulnerabilities. He has held academic positions at Oxford University (Departmental Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, 2019–2022) and McGill University (Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Science, 2017–2019).

Bagg's recently published book, The Dispersion of Power: A Critical Realist Theory of Democracy, challenges conventional democratic theory by advocating for organized countervailing power to combat oligarchic trends. The book is available through Oxford University Press, with a paperback edition expected in 2025. His work has been featured in Boston Review, Foreign Affairs, and the Institution for Social and Policy Studies newsletter.

His Google Scholar publications span democratic participation, antitrust as democratic demand, sortition, and political realism, reflecting his focus on practical reforms. Current projects include exploring randomly selected mini-publics and anti-essentialist ontologies for liberal democracy. Bagg actively engages with public discourse through Bluesky and Twitter, advocating for democratic innovation and institutional accountability.