Alexander Kirshner, "Legitimate Opposition" (Yale UP, 2022)
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What is the central thesis of Alexander Kirshner’s *Legitimate Opposition*?
Hi everyone, this is Marshall Poe. I'm the founder of the New Books Network and I'm also a historian. I used to be a history professor and I love maps, so I'm especially happy to tell you that this episode is sponsored by What's Your Map, which was the winner of the Best Education Podcast at the 2025 British Podcast Awards. What's Your Map is hosted by historian and prize-winning author Professor Jerry Broughton. In each episode, he invites a guest to share a map close to their heart and unfurl the ideas, inspirations, and stories behind it. I can tell you I've listened and it's fascinating. The podcast is in its sixth series and is enjoyed by audiences around the globe. You can explore all the maps in the podcast online.
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Hello, and thanks for joining us for this episode of New Books and Philosophy, which is part of the New Books Network. I'm Robert Talese. I'm professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co-host the program with Carrie Figter, Malcolm Keating, and Sarah Tyson. My guest today is Alexander Kirshner. Alex is associate professor of political science at Duke University. He's a political theorist specializing in democratic theory. Now, he's just published a new book with Yale University Press. It's titled Legitimate Opposition. The idea of legitimate political opposition is familiar. A decent political order permits citizens, parties, coalitions, and so on to challenge those in power. Under those conditions, there's an ongoing nonviolent contest for political power.
Now, typically, the value of legitimate opposition is understood in terms of the value of democracy. Here, the idea is that democracy is damaged or subverted when practices of legitimate opposition are suppressed. However, this familiar account opens questions about the value of legitimate opposition under conditions that are not perfectly or even satisfactorily democratic. It also obscures real-world practices of legitimate opposition that are themselves not allied with democratic norms like equality. Now, in his book, Legitimate Opposition, Alex Kirschner develops and defends a conception of legitimate opposition that's not so tightly tethered to democracy. On this view, the value of opposition lies with the value of political agency.
Now, as usual, there's a lot to talk about and a lot of interesting stuff afoot. But why don't we begin as we usually do with our guest. Hello, Alex. Hi, Bob.
How are you today? Thanks for having me. I'm well, thanks.
That's great. Well, I'm really excited to talk about your book. But before we get into that, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Yeah, so I think what's relevant for this conversation is that I grew up in Chicago in the 1980s. And one of my most salient memories from that time was the election of Harold Washington. He was an African-American politician, and it shook the city. It was like a political earthquake in Chicago when he was elected. And what I remember, I mean, among other things, was my parents. happiness, my parents' happiness, that Washington was elected. But the response of many people in Chicago to his election and to his candidacy was outside of the norms of what we thought was democratic. I mean, the Democratic Party rebelled against him. Things couldn't get done. People were outwardly racist against him. And both his election and the response to his election sparked
in me a kind of longstanding interest in democracy and a longstanding concern that many of the people who inhabit democracies are not especially committed to the practice.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the central thesis of Alexander Kirshner’s *Legitimate Opposition*?
0:00–12:21
2
How does Kirshner define “legitimate opposition” beyond traditional democratic theory?
12:21–23:06
3
What personal experiences shaped Kirshner’s interest in political opposition?
23:06–50:51
4
Why does Kirshner adopt an adversarial conception of opposition rather than a cooperative one?
50:51–1:00:54
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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