Udit Bhatia is a lecturer in political theory with the Department of Political Economy. Before King’s College London, he was a senior lecturer at the University of York and a lecturer at the University of Sheffield. Previously, he was a Junior Research Fellow at Jesus College and lecturer in politics at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford.

He studied philosophy as an undergraduate student at St Stephen’s College, Delhi, before moving to the UK for postgraduate studies at University College London and later Cambridge. He then moved to Oxford for his doctoral studies, completed in March 2019.

Research

Udit’s research focuses on normative democratic theory, constitutionalism, and political epistemology. Some of his recent papers have examined the legal and normative status of political parties, asking how their internal rules should be configured. In other work, he has engaged with epistocracy, the notion that competent persons should enjoy exclusive or disproportionate political power. He is also interested in the history of political thought, especially in relation to democratic institutions.

Udit welcomes PhD supervision in the areas of contemporary democratic theory, constitutional thought, history of political thought and democratic institutions, political parties, and comparative political theory.

Office hours

Semester 1

Weeks 1-5:

Wednesday: 14.00 - 15.00

Friday: 14.00 - 15.00

Weeks 7-11:

Tuesday: 15.00 - 16.00

Friday: 14.00 - 15.00

Publications

Latest Publications

The Pedagogical Account of Parliamentarism at India's Founding, American Journal of Political Science Vol 68, no. 4 (2024): 1286-1298

Intra-Party Democracy: A Functionalist Account, Journal of Political Philosophy Vol 30, no. 3 (2022): 347-369 – with Samuel Bagg.

Indirect Elections as a Constitutional Device of Epistocracy, International Journal of Constitutional Law Vol 21, no. 1 (2021): 82-111.