Events

Voter education: the challenge of the century

Hosted by CPNSS and the Department of Philosophy

In-person and online public event (Sheikh Zayed Theatre, Cheng Kin Ku Building)

Speakers

Professor Eric Maskin

Professor Eric Maskin

Joining remotely

Professor Amartya Sen

Professor Amartya Sen

Joining remotely

Dr Suzanne Bloks

Dr Suzanne Bloks

Discussant

Professor Richard Bradley

Professor Richard Bradley

Discussant

Rudolf Fara

Rudolf Fara

Discussant

Chair

Professor Larry Kramer

Professor Larry Kramer

As authoritarianism and political violence threaten democracies throughout the world at levels not seen since the 1930s, attacks on free and fair elections are rife. Democracy is about choice, and achieving a legitimate democratic system of government relies on making representative social choices. Join us to find out about VoteDemocracy, which is a new global education initiative featuring a comprehensive course on the central role of voting in democracy.

In support of the new project, Nobel Laureates Amartya Sen and Eric Maskin address core democratic principles. Professor Sen revisits the foundational ‘rule by the people’ with his talk, Democracy—Why, and Why Not? Professor Maskin offers an electoral prescription in response to his topic, How Should Members of Parliament (and Congress) be Elected? 

Meet our speakers and chair

Eric Maskin (joining remotely) is the Adams University Professor and Professor of Economics and Mathematics at Harvard University. He has made contributions to game theory, contract theory, social choice theory, political economy, and other areas of economics. In 2007, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (with L. Hurwicz and R. Myerson) for laying the foundations of mechanism design theory.

Amartya Sen (joining remotely) is Thomas W. Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, at Harvard University and was previously the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is also Senior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. His research has ranged over social choice theory, economic theory, ethics and political philosophy and welfare economics. In 1998, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work in welfare economics. Amartya is an Honorary Fellow of LSE.

Suzanne Bloks is a postdoctoral researcher on the Cohesion and Deliberative Decision-Making project at LSE. She received her PhD in Philosophy from Hamburg University. Her research focusses on democracy, political representation, deliberation and voting, electoral systems design and identity politics.

Richard Bradley is Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy Logic and Scientific Method at LSE, Project Leader of the Choice Group at CPNSS, and a fellow of the British Academy. He works broadly on decision theory, and related fields such as formal epistemology and semantics. Much of his work is on individual decision making under uncertainty and the role of hypothetical reasoning in reaching judgements about what to do.

Rudolf Fara is co-founder and Project Leader of Voting Power and Procedures, and Director of its VoteDemocracy project in CPNSS at LSE. He is co-editor of the VoteDemocracy course-book by Springer (forthcoming) and director of the accompanying video course, a ground-breaking production ‘by students, for students’. Fara created the Video Library of Philosophy archive, and co-founded the world’s first publisher of academic media on computing.

Larry Kramer has been President and Vice Chancellor of LSE since April 2024. A constitutional scholar, university administrator, and philanthropic leader, he was previously the President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Dean of Stanford Law School.

More about this event

This event will be available to watch on LSE Live. LSE Live is the new home for our live streams, allowing you to tune in and join the global debate at LSE, wherever you are in the world. If you can't attend live, a video will be made available shortly afterwards on LSE's YouTube channel.

The Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science (@lsephilosophy) promotes research into philosophical, methodological and foundational questions arising in the natural and the social sciences.

The Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method (@LSEPhilosophy) was founded by Karl Popper in 1946 and is renowned for a type of philosophy that is both continuous with the sciences and socially relevant.

The VoteDemocracy project grows from a decade of Leverhulme Trust funded research activities of the Voting Power and Procedures (VPP) project at CPNSS during which it produced more than 120 published papers, and two books edited by the directors. The VoteDemocarcy video project will combine the Philosophy Department’s expertise—particularly with respect to the PPE degree programme and the activities of the Choice Group—with VPP’s extensive research in social choice, and its extensive experience in pedagogical video production.

Erica Yu, a final-year PhD candidate at the Erasmus Institute of Philosophy and Economics (EIPE) Rotterdam and CPNSS research visitor, has written and presents the first by students, for students production for the VoteDemocracy video series, and its trailer featured at the lecture. Erica works on deliberation and decision-making on complex and divisive policy issues. 

Hashtag for this event: #LSEEvents

Podcast & Video

A podcast of this event is available to download from Voter education: the challenge of the century.

A video of this event is available to watch at Voter education: the challenge of the century.

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.

Featured image (used in source code with watermark added): Photo by Edmond Dantès via Pexels.

 

LSE Blogs

Many speakers at LSE events also write for LSE Blogs, which present research and critical commentary accessibly for a public audience. Follow British Politics and Policy, the Business Review, the Impact BlogEuropean Politics and Policy and the LSE Review of Books to learn more about the debates our events series present.

Live captions

Automated live captions are available at this live event. Please note that this feature uses Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology, or machine generated transcription and is not 100% accurate.

Photography

Photographs taken on behalf of LSE are often used on our social media accounts, website and publications. At events, photographs could include broad shots of the audience and lecture theatre, of speakers during the talk, and of audience members as they participate in the Q&A.

If you are photographed participating in an event Q&A but would not like your photograph to be stored for future use, please contact events@lse.ac.uk.

Media queries

Please contact the Press Office if you would like to request a press seat or have a media query about this event, email LSE.Press.Events@lse.ac.uk. Please note that press seats are usually allocated at least 24 hours before each event.

Podcasts

We aim to make all LSE events available as a podcast subject to receiving permission from the speaker/s to do this, and subject to no technical problems with the recording of the event. Podcasts are normally available 1 week after the event. Podcasts and videos of past events can be found online

Social Media

Follow LSE public events on X for the latest updates on all our events and ticket releases. 

Livestreams and archive videos of past lectures are shared on our YouTube channel while event podcasts can be found on the LSE Player.

Event updates and other information about what’s happening at LSE can be found on our Facebook page and for live photos from events and around campus, follow us on Instagram

Attending our events in-person or online? Join the conversation using #LSEEvents.

Accessibility

If you are planning to attend this event and would like details on how to get here and what time to arrive, as well as on accessibility and special requirements, please refer to LSE Events FAQ.  LSE aims to ensure that people have equal access to these public events, but please contact the events organiser as far as possible in advance if you have any access requirements so that arrangements, where possible, can be made. If the event is ticketed, please ensure you get in touch in advance of the ticket release date. Access Guides to all our venues can be viewed online.

WIFI Access

LSE has now introduced wireless for guests and visitors in association with 'The Cloud', also in use at many other locations across the UK. If you are on campus visiting for the day or attending a conference or event, you can connect your device to wireless. See more information and create an account at Join the Cloud.
Visitors from other participating institutions are encouraged to use eduroam. If you are having trouble connecting to eduroam, please contact your home institution for assistance.
The Cloud is only intended for guest and visitor access to wifi. Existing LSE staff and students are encouraged to use eduroam instead.
From time to time there are changes to event details so we strongly recommend that if you plan to attend this event you check back on this listing on the day of the event.