My research is on the historical development of political ideas and the political significance of their application in practice. It has covered the political thought of Locke, the aetiology and political consequences of revolutions, the politics of postcolonial Africa, political thinking across the world and over time, and most recently the dynamics of regime persistence and change across the globe over the last century and their prospective implications for the human future now that that is so obtrusively in jeopardy. For the last three decades it has focused particularly on the diffusion of democracy as a term, a range of hazily associated ideas, and the very diverse regime that have claimed and continue to claim to realise some version of those ideas, especially in China, Japan, Korea, South Asia, and, alas most recently, the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States too.
My main works are The Political Thought of John Locke, Modern Revolutions, Western Political Theory in the Face of the Future, The Cunning of Unreason: Making Sense of Politics, and Setting the People Free: The Story of Democracy.
