Jeff Spinner-Halev

During his fellowship year, Jeff Spinner-Halev will work on a book tentatively entitled “Does Hierarchy Always Undermine Democratic Equality?” A common view among democratic theorists is that hierarchy always opposes equality. Hierarchy and status differences are inescapable, however. This book moves beyond the simple dichotomy and examines how democratic equality co-exists with hierarchical institutions and how they constrain each other.  This book will explore when and how hierarchy undermines democratic equality and when it does not, by empirically examining the views of equality held by ordinary citizens. This book will present a new approach to understanding equality, offering insights for both political theorists and social scientists. Spinner-Halev has a second, smaller project called “What does it Mean to Live with Injustice?” 

Spinner-Halev is the Kenan Eminent Professor of Political Ethics at UNC-Chapel Hill. He has long-standing research interests in the political ramifications of group identity and the relationship between majorities and minorities in different parts of the world. He is the author of several books and many articles; his most recent book (co-authored with Elizabeth Theiss-Morse) is Respect and Loathing in American Democracy: Polarization, Moralization, and the Undermining of Equality (University of Chicago Press, 2024).