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Dr Samuel De Canio
Dr Samuel De Canio

Dr Samuel De Canio

Senior Lecturer in Political Economy

Research interests

  • Politics
  • Policy and society

Biography

Samuel DeCanio is a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Economy whose research examines general theoretical questions about how knowledge interacts with social, economic, and political institutions, and specific historical questions about the creation of modern bureaucratic states. He has published articles in the American Journal of Political Science, Critical Review, Journal of Politics, Party Politics, Social Philosophy and Policy, and Studies in American Political Development. His first book, Democracy and the Origins of the American Regulatory State (Yale University Press, 2015), examines democratic control over the creation of the American regulatory state in the late 19th century and argues high levels of public ignorance prevented voters from controlling important policy decisions at key moments in American political development.

His current book manuscript, Politics, Markets, and War: How Conflict and Ignorance Shape the Modern World (advanced contract with Yale University Press), examines how knowledge and ignorance influence economic markets, democratic politics, and the causes of war among states. The book attributes the irrationalities of modern political life to information problems exhibited by public decisions, and specifically focuses on how the singular nature of states’ decisions limits opportunities to observe policy counterfactuals or generate experimental political knowledge.

Dr DeCanio is also working on projects examining American progressivism and the ideas of Walter Lippmann and Herbert Croly, causal inference and the market, monopoly power and welfare analysis. He is also conducting research into the nomadic Bedouin of Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter, and the critiques of modernity made by British Orientalists such as Wilfred Thesiger and John “Pasha” Glubb.

Since arriving at King’s, he has received grants from the British Academy, the Hill Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, the Raheem Sterling Foundation, the Royal Geographical Society, and the Oxford Russia Fund. In 2023 Dr DeCanio was awarded the Thesiger-Oman International Fellowship from the Royal Geographical Society for his research into British travel writers and the Bedouin of the Middle East. Dr DeCanio is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, he co-directs (with Michael Bankole) the Raheem Sterling Scholarship Program at King’s College London, and is the Associate Director of the Centre for the Study of Governance and Society. Prior to arriving at King’s he was an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at Yale University where he was also a resident fellow of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies.

More information about his publications can be found on his google scholar page.

Research

Dr DeCanio’s research examines general theoretical questions about how knowledge interacts with social institutions, and specific historical questions about the creation of modern states. His book, Democracy and the Origins of the American Regulatory State (Yale University Press, 2015), argues high levels of voter ignorance grants democratic governments significant autonomy from popular control, and examines the creation of the American regulatory state in the late 19th century. His current research compares how knowledge interacts with markets and firms, democratic politics and political parties, and international relations among states.

Teaching

    Research

    Fourth Annual Distinguished Lecture in Economics
    Politics, Philosophy and Economics Research Group

    The PPE research group studies questions spanning the disciplines of politics, philosophy, and economics.

    Tower_Bridge_Sunset_HERO
    Political Theory Research Group

    The political theory group covers many topics and approaches, and affirms the central importance of political economy to political theory.

    News

    Project will seek to create archive on nomadic culture

    A King’s academic will be working closely with Bedouin people in Saudi Arabia as part of a project which has received funding from the Royal Geographical...

    SPENewsStock

    The chance e-mail that set the ball rolling on unique partnership

    Premier League footballers are elite athletes; competitors at the top of their professions who are well used to delivering perfection under pressure.

    Raheemnews2

      Research

      Fourth Annual Distinguished Lecture in Economics
      Politics, Philosophy and Economics Research Group

      The PPE research group studies questions spanning the disciplines of politics, philosophy, and economics.

      Tower_Bridge_Sunset_HERO
      Political Theory Research Group

      The political theory group covers many topics and approaches, and affirms the central importance of political economy to political theory.

      News

      Project will seek to create archive on nomadic culture

      A King’s academic will be working closely with Bedouin people in Saudi Arabia as part of a project which has received funding from the Royal Geographical...

      SPENewsStock

      The chance e-mail that set the ball rolling on unique partnership

      Premier League footballers are elite athletes; competitors at the top of their professions who are well used to delivering perfection under pressure.

      Raheemnews2