David Runciman
{{Short description|Political scientist}}
{{Multiple issues |
{{COI|date=June 2024}}
{{Primary sources|date=April 2024}}}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
{{Infobox academic
| honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable
| name = The Viscount Runciman
of Doxford
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FBA|FRSL}}
| image =
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1967|3|1|df=y}}
| birth_place = St John's Wood, London, England
| birth_name = David Walter Runciman
| death_date =
| death_place =
| death_cause =
| nationality = British
| citizenship =
| other_names =
| occupation = Academic, author, podcaster
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| spouse = {{marriage|Bee Wilson|1997|2021|end=divorce}}
{{marriage|Helen Lyon-Dalberg-Acton|2021}}
| partner =
| children = 3
| parents = Garry Runciman
Ruth Runciman
| relatives =
| awards =
| website =
| education = Eton College
| alma_mater = Trinity College, Cambridge
| discipline =
| workplaces = Trinity Hall, Cambridge
| main_interests =
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| notable_ideas =
}}
David Walter Runciman, 4th Viscount Runciman of Doxford (born 1 March 1967), is an English academic and podcaster who until 2024 taught politics and history at the University of Cambridge, where he was Professor of Politics. From October 2014 to October 2018 he was also head of the Department of Politics and International Studies.{{cite web |url=http://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/Staff_and_Students/professor-david-runciman |title=David Runciman |date=26 September 2013 |publisher=Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), University of Cambridge |access-date=6 May 2020 |archive-date=25 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200425131734/https://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/Staff_and_Students/professor-david-runciman |url-status=live}} In April 2024 he decided to resign his position at the university to focus on his podcast full-time.{{cite web |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/history-ideas-equality-justice-revolution-david-runciman-review-qnmlmvcvg |title=The History of Ideas by David Runciman review — lobbing thought bombs at western civilisation |date=22 June 2024 |access-date=22 June 2024}} He was subsequently made Honorary Professor of Politics.{{cite web | url=https://x.com/BennettInst/status/1820442699146633488 | title=Bennett Institute for Public Policy (@BennettInst) on X | work=X (formerly Twitter) }}
Family and early life
Runciman was born in St John's Wood, North London, England, and grew up there. His father, Garry Runciman, 3rd Viscount Runciman, was a political sociologist and academic and his mother, Ruth Runciman, is former chair of the UK Mental Health Commission, a founder of the Prison Reform Trust and former chair of the National Aids Trust.{{cite web |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/the-confidence-trap-a-history-of-democracy-in-crisis-from-world-war-i-to-the-present-by-david-runciman/2009475.article |title=The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from World War I to the Present, by David Runciman |last=Shook |first=Karen |work=Times Higher Education |date=5 December 2013 |access-date=8 July 2017 |archive-date=7 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107021335/https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/the-confidence-trap-a-history-of-democracy-in-crisis-from-world-war-i-to-the-present-by-david-runciman/2009475.article |url-status=live}} He was educated at Eton College, an all-boys public school in Berkshire, where he won the Newcastle Scholarship. He went on to study at Trinity College, Cambridge.{{cite web |url=https://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/newsletters/september-newsletter-2021/ |title=September Newsletter 2021 |publisher=Trinty College, Cambridge |date=28 September 2021 |access-date=8 August 2024}}{{cite web |url=https://www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/festival/events/brexit-what-next |title=Alumni Festival 2020 - "Brexit: what next?" |publisher=University of Cambridge |date=25 September 2020 |access-date=8 August 2024}}
Career
=Academic=
In October 2014, he was appointed head of the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge. Runciman gave his inaugural lecture on 24 February 2015 on Political Theory and Real Politics in the Age of the Internet.{{cite web |url=http://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/Staff_and_Students/professor-david-runciman |title=Professor David Runciman |work=Politics and International Studies (POLIS) |date=26 September 2013 |publisher=University of Cambridge |access-date=8 July 2017 |archive-date=8 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708005057/http://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/Staff_and_Students/professor-david-runciman |url-status=live}} He was preceded in this position by Andrew Gamble and Geoffrey Hawthorn.
In 2020, Runciman co-founded the Cambridge Centre for the Future of Democracy, a research institute dedicated to the exploration of innovative approaches to the study of democratic governance worldwide.{{Cite web |url=https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/blog/centre-future-democracy/ |title=The Centre for the Future of Democracy |date=10 January 2020}} At its launch the Centre released its first report, gaining widespread media coverage, and has since released a further three annual reports as well as peer-reviewed articles in academic journals.{{Cite web |url=https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/research/research-projects/democracy/ |title=Democracy |date=24 February 2024}}
In 2018, Runciman was elected Fellow of the British Academy (FBA).{{cite web |url=https://www.britac.ac.uk/news/record-number-academics-elected-british-academy |title=Record number of academics elected to British Academy {{!}} British Academy |website=British Academy |language=en |access-date=2018-07-22 |archive-date=16 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180916013119/https://www.britac.ac.uk/news/record-number-academics-elected-british-academy |url-status=live}} In 2021, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL).{{cite news |date=2021-07-06 |title=RSL announces 44 new Fellows and Honorary Fellows |url=https://rsliterature.org/2021/07/rsl-announces-44-new-fellows-and-honorary-fellows/ |access-date=2021-07-09 |website=Royal Society of Literature |language=en-GB |archive-date=9 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709184112/https://rsliterature.org/2021/07/rsl-announces-44-new-fellows-and-honorary-fellows/ |url-status=live |last1=Brook |first1=Annette }}
=Writing=
Runciman began writing for the London Review of Books in 1996 and has written dozens of book reviews and articles on contemporary politics since, for the LRB and other publications.{{cite web |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/david-runciman |title=David Runciman |work=London Review of Books|access-date=8 July 2017|archive-date=30 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630162655/https://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/david-runciman|url-status=live}}
Runciman has published eight books. An adaptation of his PhD thesis was published in 1997 as Pluralism and the Personality of the State. The Politics of Good Intentions: History, Fear and Hypocrisy in the New World Order (2006) evaluates contemporary and historical crisis in international politics after 9/11 while Political Hypocrisy (2008) explores the political uses of hypocrisy from a historical perspective.{{Cite news |url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=402875§ioncode=26 |work=Times Higher Education |title=Political Hypocrisy: The Mask of Power, from Hobbes to Orwell and Beyond |date=17 July 2008 |first=Tim |last=Dunne |author-link=Tim Dunne |access-date=8 February 2010 |archive-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111107061255/http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=402875§ioncode=26 |url-status=live}} The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from World War I to the Present (2013) lays out his theory of the threat of democratic overconfidence.{{Cite news |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/11/paean-muddling-through |work=New Statesman |title=The Confidence Trap by David Runciman: Are we too complacent about democracy? |date=14 November 2013 |first=Vernon |last=Bogdanor |author-link=Vernon Bogdanor |access-date=8 October 2014 |archive-date=13 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141013070800/http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/11/paean-muddling-through |url-status=live}} Profile Books published his books Politics: Ideas in Profile and How Democracy Ends in 2014 and 2018, respectively. In 2021 he published Confronting Leviathan: A History of Ideas, looking at thinkers and ideas in modern politics.
Runciman's book Politics: Ideas in Profile explores what politics is, why do we need it and where is it heading.
After a negative book review in The Guardian of Antifragility by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Taleb referred to Runciman as the "second most stupid reviewer" of his works, arguing that Runciman had missed the concept of convexity, the theme of his book. "There are 607 references to convexity", Taleb wrote.{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/nov/21/antifragile-how-to-live-nassim-nicholas-taleb-review |title=Antifragile: How to Live in a World We Don't Understand by Nassim Nicholas Taleb – review |first=David |last=Runciman |date=21 November 2012 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=11 December 2016 |archive-date=3 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170203090216/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/nov/21/antifragile-how-to-live-nassim-nicholas-taleb-review |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |url=http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/totheeditor.html |title=Response by Taleb |access-date=9 October 2014 |archive-date=27 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121127230814/http://fooledbyrandomness.com/totheeditor.html |url-status=live }}
Published by Profile Books in 2018, How Democracy Ends looks at the political landscape of the West and whether democracy is at risk. Andrew Rawnsley in The Guardian wrote that the book left him "feeling more positive than I thought I would be" {{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/20/how-democracy-ends-david-runciman-review-trump |title=How Democracy Ends review – is people politics doomed? |website=TheGuardian.com |date=20 May 2018 |access-date=20 January 2021 |archive-date=9 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109032528/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/20/how-democracy-ends-david-runciman-review-trump |url-status=live}}
=Podcasting=
From 2016 to 2022, Runciman hosted a podcast called Talking Politics with professor Helen Thompson. The podcast convened a panel of academics from the University of Cambridge and elsewhere to speak about current affairs and politics. It ended in March 2022 after over 300 episodes and 26 million downloads.{{Cite web |url=https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/ |title=Talking Politics |date=3 March 2022 |website=Talking Politics}}{{better|reason=primary source|date=June 2024}} Tim Abrams, writing in The Guardian, called it "terrific". Oliver Eagleton, writing in the New Statesman, said of it "There [Runciman] reflected on current affairs in his reassuring Eton baritone: parsing the headlines, never taking too strident a position, throwing softball questions to his guests ... and recycling conventional north London wisdom".{{cite news |last1=Eagleton |first1=Oliver |title=David Runciman's armchair politics |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2023/08/david-runciman-review-armchair-politics |access-date=16 June 2024 |work=New Statesman |date=23 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230825205822/https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2023/08/david-runciman-review-armchair-politics |archive-date=25 August 2023}}
On 27 April 2023, Runciman launched "Past Present Future: The History of Ideas Podcast".{{cite web |url=https://shows.acast.com/pastpresentfuture |title=Past Present Future }}
Personal life
Runciman is the great-nephew of the historian Sir Steven Runciman. He inherited his family's viscountcy on the death of his father in 2020.{{cite web |title=Happy families |first=Michael |last=Crick |author-link=Michael Crick |publisher=BBC Newsnight blog |date=9 January 2008 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/2008/01/happy_families.html |access-date=20 December 2019 |archive-date=4 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404050311/https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/2008/01/happy_families.html |url-status=live}} From 1997 to 2021 he was married to the food writer Bee Wilson with whom he has three children.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/03/18/a-fork-of-ones-own |magazine=The New Yorker |last=Kramer |first=Jane |author-link=Jane Kramer |title=A Fork of One's Own: A history of culinary revolution |date=18 March 2013 |access-date=8 July 2017 |archive-date=12 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170712102213/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/03/18/a-fork-of-ones-own |url-status=live}} Since 2021 he has been married to psychotherapist Helen Runciman (née Lyon-Dalberg-Acton), daughter of academic Edward Acton.(2023, December 01). Runciman of Doxford, 4th Viscount, (David Walter Runciman) (born 1 March 1967). WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. Retrieved 28 Feb. 2025, from https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-278209.
Arms
{{Emblem table
| name = David Runciman, 4th Viscount Runciman of Doxford{{cite book |year=2002 |title=Debrett's peerage and baronetage |publisher=Debrett's Peerage Ltd. |page=1392 |isbn=978-0-333-66093-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/debrettspeerageb0000unse_r0m8/page/1392}}
| image = Coat of arms of Viscounts Runciman of Doxford.svg
| imagesize = 200px
| crest = A seahorse erect gules, holding in the fore fins a thistle as in the arms.
| escutcheon = Per fess or and azure a lymphad oars in action, the sail charged with a thistle leaved and slipped proper, flags flying to the dexter gules.
| supporters = On either side a seahorse or gorged with a chain pendent therefrom a grappling iron azure.
| motto = By sea
}}
Selected works
- {{cite book |title=Pluralism and the Personality of the State |last=Runciman |first=David |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1997 |isbn=9780521551915}}
- {{cite journal |title=Is the State a Corporation? |last=Runciman |first=David |year=2000 |journal=Government and Opposition |volume=35 |number=1 |pages=90–104 |doi=10.1111/1477-7053.00014 |s2cid=143599471}}
- {{cite book |title=Maitland: State, Trust and Corporation; Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pnmw-YFgi_sC&q=9780521526302 |editor1=David Runciman |editor2=Magnus Ryan |last=Maitland |first=Frederic William |author-link=Frederic William Maitland |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2003 |isbn=9780521526302}}
- {{cite book |title=The Politics of Good Intentions: History, Fear and Hypocrisy in the New World Order |last=Runciman |first=David |publisher=Princeton University Press |date=2009 |isbn=9781400827121}}
- {{cite book |title=Political Hypocrisy: The Mask of Power, from Hobbes to Orwell and Beyond |last=Runciman |first=David |publisher=Princeton University Press |date=2010 |isbn=9780691148151}}
- {{cite book |title=Representation |last2=Runciman |first2=David |last1=Brito Vieira |first1=Monica |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |date=2013 |isbn=9780745658292}}
- {{cite book |title=Politics: Ideas in Profile |last=Runciman |first=David |publisher=Profile Books |date=2014 |isbn=9781782831358}}
- {{cite book |title=The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from World War I to the Present |last=Runciman |first=David |publisher=Princeton University Press |date=2015 |isbn=9781400866076}}
- {{cite book |title=How Democracy Ends |last=Runciman |first=David |publisher=Profile Books |date=2018 |isbn=9781541616783}}
- {{cite book |title=Where Power Stops |last=Runciman |first=David |publisher=Profile Books |date=2019 |isbn=9781788163330}}
- {{cite magazine |title=Don't be a Kerensky! |last=Runciman |first=David |magazine=London Review of Books |volume=42 |number=23 |date=2020 |pages=13–16, 18 |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n23/david-runciman/don-t-be-a-kerensky}}
- {{cite book |last=Runciman |first=David |title=Confronting Leviathan : a history of ideas |publication-place=London |date=2021 |isbn=978-1-78816-782-6 |oclc=1228314920}}
- {{cite book |last=Runciman |first=David |title=The Handover: How We Gave Control of Our Lives to Corporations, States and AIs |publisher=Profile Books |date=2023 |isbn=978-1788163675}}{{cite news |last1=Adams |first1=Tim |title=The Handover by David Runciman review – is the future out of our control? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/sep/10/the-handover-how-we-gave-control-of-our-lives-to-corporations-states-ais-by-david-runciman-review-is-the-future-out-of-our-control |access-date=16 June 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=10 September 2023}}
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
- [http://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/Staff_and_Students/professor-david-runciman University of Cambridge profile page]
- {{Internet Archive author |sname= David Runciman}}
- [https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-of-ideas Past Present Future podcast hosted by Runciman]
- {{IMDb name|4036050}}
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Category:People from St John's Wood
Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Category:English people of Scottish descent
Category:People educated at Eton College
Category:Fellows of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Category:English political scientists
Category:English political writers
Category:English male journalists
Category:The Guardian journalists
Category:Viscounts in the Peerage of the United Kingdom