Dennis Thompson

Alfred North Whitehead Professor of Political Philosophy
Director Emeritus
Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics
Office Address
Non Resident
Mailing Address
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Mailbox NR
79 JFK Street
Contact
Phone: 617-496-0878
Email: Dennis_Thompson@ksg.harvard.edu
Dennis Thompson

Profile

Dennis F. Thompson, Professor of Public Policy, is also the Alfred North Whitehead Professor of Political Philosophy in the Government Department in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and founding Director of Harvard's university-wide ethics program, now the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics. His books include: Just Elections: Creating a Fair Electoral Process in the United States; Restoring Responsibility: Ethics in Government, Business and Healthcare;Political Ethics and Public Office; and Ethics in Congress: From Individual to Institutional Corruption. He is also the author (jointly with Amy Gutmann) of Why Deliberative Democracy? and Democracy & Disagreement. Professor Thompson has served as a consultant to the Joint Ethics Committee of the South African Parliament, the American Medical Association, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and the Department of Health and Human Services. He received his BA in philosophy summa cum laude from the College of William and Mary; took first-class honors in philosophy, politics, and economics at Balliol College, Oxford; and holds a PhD in political science from Harvard.

Media Expertise

Dennis Thompson welcomes media inquiries on the following subjects:

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Research

For a complete list of faculty citations from 2001 - present, please visit the Harvard Kennedy School Research Report Online.

Selected Publication Citations:

  • Academic Journals
    • Thompson, Dennis F. "Deliberative Democratic Theory and Empirical Political Science." Annual Review of Political Science 11 (June 2008): 497-520.
    • Thompson, Dennis F. "Electoral Spontaneity: Expressing Equal Respect." Journal of Social Issues 64.2 (September 2008): 487-501.
    • Thompson, Dennis F. "À La Recherche d'une Responsabilitè du Contrôle." Revue Française de Science Politique 58 (2008): 933-951.
  • Book Chapters
    • Thompson, Dennis F. "Cyberdemocracy: Is the Internet Good for Democracy?" Japan's Democracy: Changing Politics, Changing Political Science. Ed. S. Yasunori and O. Kosuke. Keio University Press, 2008.
    • Thompson, Dennis F. "Who Should Govern Who Governs? The Role of Citizens in Reforming the Electoral System." Designing Deliberative Democracy: The British Columbia Citizens' Assembly. Ed. Mark E. Warren and Hilary Pearse. Cambridge University Press, 2008, 20-49.
    • Thompson, Dennis F. "Conflicts of Interest." Oxford Textbook of Clinical Research Ethics. Ed. Ezekial Emanuel, Christine Grady, Robert A. Crouch, Reidar Lie, Franklin Millar, and David Wendler. Oxford University Press, 2008.
  • Books
    • Thompson, Dennis F. Political Ethics and Public Office, Serbian translation. Sluzbeni Glasnik, 2008.
    • Gutmann, Amy, and Dennis F. Thompson. Democracy and Disagreement, Chinese translation. People's Publishing House, 2008.
  • Magazine and Newspaper Articles
    • Thompson, Dennis F. "Obama’s Ethics Agenda Seems to Be Lost." Roll Call. April 21, 2009.