Jack Knight

Knight's work focuses on the legal and political institutions that structure social life. Four books highlight his contributions. In Institutions and Social Conflict (1992), his primary contribution was an analysis of the distributional consequences of social institutions and the mechanisms by which these rules remain stable over time. In The Choices Justices Make (1998) (co-authored with Lee Epstein), he examined the multi-dimensional institutional strategies of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. In The Priority of Democracy (2011) (co-authored with James Johnson), he argued that pragmatism provides insights into the special role that democratic decision making should play in the choice of social institutions. In doing so, pragmatism offers a unique justification of democracy. In Democratic Deals (2024) (co-authored with Melissa Schwartzberg), he defends political bargaining against those who champion deliberation or compromise, showing that, under the right conditions and constraints, democratic bargaining can secure political equality and protect fundamental interests.