“Had Every Athenian Citizen Been a Socrates”: Plato and James Madison in the Court of Rainer Knopff

Abstract

Rainer Knopff is one of Canada’s great political scientists who taught a generation of Canadians important principles of liberal democracy. His scholarship is informed by a philosophical understanding of the fundamentals of liberal democracy, which can be seen in a series of works on controversies in early Canadian political history that he describes as “regime politics.” While his treatment of liberal democracy as a “regime” is in line with republicanism, which form of republicanism it follows is unclear. Knopff himself raises the question of whether his republicanism is ancient or modern when he lists James Madison and Plato as his two biggest intellectual influences. This essay tries to make sense of how he combines Madison and Plato and what this combination means for our understanding of liberal democracy.