Tegos SPYRIDON

University of Crete - Greece
Visiting scholar invited by research center AGORA
Curriculum Vitae
 

Research project

A genealogy of deference to authority in modernity key moments of an understudied issue

In this project I draw a genealogy of the key moments of theories of prestigious leadership in modernity and its critics taking my cues from the Scottish enlightenment and its proto-liberal pioneers; a key component of Scottish theories of prestige is the notion of deference to authority. The unsurpassed contribution of the Scots lay on their scrutiny over the middling rank prestige and their critical approach of deference to prestigious authority in political constitutions of the early modernity. The impact of this debate over the vicissitudes of parliamentary and representative democracy in the 19th century remains largely unexplored. In this context I aim to discuss, in collaboration with Prof. Catherine Marshall, the Scottish legacy within the debate about democratic authority in modernity from the 18th century onwards. Catherine Marshall is about to publish with Palgrave (2021): Political Deference in a Democratic Age: British Politics and the Constitution from the Eighteenth Century to Brexit.