Johan Karlsson Schaffer

• PhD in Political Science, 2009.
• MSc in Political Science, 2002.
• BSc in International Relations, 2000.

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo, within the research project Should states ratify human rights conventions? I earned my doctoral degree in political science from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2009. I have also studied at the University of Essex, UK, and the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.

My main research interests are located at the intersection of political and international theory, and especially democratic theory. My doctoral dissertation Democrats without borders: A critique of transnational democracy (2008) critically challenges cosmopolitan and deliberative models of transnational democracy.

Together with Birgit Schlütter, NCHR, and Martin Binder, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, I've co-founded Austat, a Norwegian-German network for junior researchers in international relations, international law and political philosophy studying the exercise of authority by international institutions. Jointly funded by the Norwegian Research Council and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Austat network has arranged three workshops in Oslo (May 2011), Berlin (October 2011) and Paris (May 2012).

Prior to joining the NCHR, I have done research on domestic origins and effects of international norms with regard to prostitution and trafficking policies within the Nordic Prostitution Policy Reform research project, funded by the Swedish Research Council. I have also been a visiting researcher at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, Germany, and a visiting lecturer at the University West, Sweden.

In the 2011 spring term, I taught Constraining sovereignty, an advanced course at the master's level at the Department of Political Science. Previously, I have taught courses on international relations, political philosophy, democratic theory, the philosophy of social science, and qualitative methodology, as well as tutored more than 25 undergraduate theses, at both Bachelor's and Master's levels in political science, European studies and social studies.

Publications

1. "Security, Equality and the Clash of Ideas: Sweden's Evolving Anti-Trafficking Policy." With Gregg Bucken-Knapp & Karin Persson Strömbäck. Human Rights Review 13:2, 2012, 167-185 (publisher's version).
2. "The boundaries of transnational democracy: Alternatives to the all-affected principle." Review of International Studies 38:2, 2012, 321-42 (publisher's version).
3. "Manifest för den glada statsvetenskapen." With Anders Hellström. Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift 112:4, 2010, 368-73.
4. Democrats without borders: A critique of transnational democracy. Doctoral dissertation, University of Gothenburg, 2008. <http://gupea.ub.gu.se/dspace/handle/2077/18348>
5. “Prostitution policy reform and the causal role of ideas: A comparative study of policy-making in the Nordic countries”. With Gregg Bucken-Knapp. Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift 110:1, 2008, 59–65.
6. “Affected and subjected: The all-affected principle in transnational democratic theory”. Discussion Paper SP IV 2006–304 Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, 2006. <http://bibliothek.wzb.eu/pdf/2006/iv06-304.pdf>
7. ”Kompisen som inte ville leka: Sveriges nej i utländsk press”. With Mette Anthonsen. In: Henrik Oscarssson & Sören Holmberg (eds.): Kampen om euron. Göteborg 2004.
8. Dawit och friheten. Om den svenske samvetsfången och Eritreas inställda demokratisering. With Rickard Sjöberg (eds.). Stockholm: Silc förlag, 2004.

Under review

1. The legitimacy of international human rights regimes. Volume co-edited with Andreas Føllesdal and Geir Ulfstein. Under review with Cambridge University Press for the series Studies on Human Rights Conventions. (Also includes my chapter “Legitimacy, global governance and human rights institutions: Inverting the puzzle.")
2. "The Same Policy, But Different Ideas: The Ideational Underpinnings of the Norwegian and Swedish Bans on the Purchase of Sexual Services." Co-authored with Gregg Bucken-Knapp. Revise & resubmit with Social Politics.
3. “The consensus paradox: Does deliberative agreement impede rational discourse?” Co-authored with Henrik Friberg-Fernros. Under review with Acta Politica.

Recent conference presentations

1. “Legitimacy, global governance and human rights institutions: Inverting the puzzle.” Presentation at the Research Seminar Series in Practical Philosophy and Political Theory, University of Gothenburg, 8 March 2012. An earlier version was presented at the Multi-Rights Start-up Conference, Oslo, 9–10 September 2011.
2. "The subjects of legitimacy in international institutions." Paper presented at the  1st Authority Beyond States Workshop, Oslo 26–27 May 2011. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Nordic Network in Political Theory meeting, Oslo 29-31 October, 2010, the 40th Annual Meeting of the Swedish Political Science Association, Gothenburg, 30 September-1 October, 2010, and at the 7th SGIR Pan-European International Relations Conference, Stockholm, 9-11 September, 2010.
3. "The Same Policy, But Different Ideas: The Ideational Underpinnings of the Norwegian and Swedish Bans on the Purchase of Sexual Services." With Gregg Bucken-Knapp. Paper presented at the European Conference on Politics and Gender, Budapest, Hungary, 13-15 January, 2011.
4. "The consensus paradox: Why deliberative agreement impedes rational discourse." With Henrik Friberg-Fernros. Paper prepared for the the Oslo–Paris International Workshop on Democracy, Paris, France, 18–20 October, 2010.
5. "Why cosmopolitans should (not) embrace world federalism." Paper presented at the 7th SGIR Pan-European International Relations Conference, Stockholm, 9-11 September, 2010.
6. “Security, Equality and the Clash of Ideas: Sweden’s Evolving Policy Towards the Trafficking of Women for Sexual Purposes.” With Gregg Bucken-Knapp & Karin Persson Strömbäck. Paper presented at the 60th Political Studies Association Annual Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland, 29 March–1 April 2010.
7. “Democracy versus human rights: Why Habermas and Held fail to resolve the tension.” Paper presented at the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, 16 March 2010 and at the Research Forum, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo, 22 March 2010.
8. “The stability of a cosmopolitan political order: Federalism versus functionalism”. Paper presented at the 51st Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, New Orleans, LA, 17–20 February 2010.
9. “Prostitution policy reform and the causal role of ideas”. With Gregg Bucken-Knapp. Paper presented at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Toronto, Canada, 3–9 September 2009.
10. "Democrats without borders." Presentation at the Department of Political Science, Örebro University, Sweden, 31 March 2009.
11. "Democrats without borders." Presentation at the Department of Political Science, Stockholm University, Sweden, 18 March 2009.
12. “Alternatives to the all-affected principle of democratic inclusion”. Paper presented at the 50th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, New York, NY, 15–18 February 2009.
13. “The boundaries of transnational democracy”. Paper presented at the 9th Annual Graduate Conference in Political Theory, University of Warwick, 17 February 2007.

Working papers

These papers represent work in various stages of progress, so while the usual draft caveats apply, I appreciate comments and critique.

• The subjects of legitimacy in international institutions: Here, I criticise Allen Buchanan & Robert Keohane's theory of legitimacy for global governance institutions, and its underlying conception of international institutions. One of my key arguments is that they misrepresent the problem of political disagreement as an epistemic problem, to which they offer epistemic solutions.
• Democracy versus human rights: Why Held and Habermas do not resolve the tension: Here, I aim to show why David Held's and Jürgen Habermas's attempts to resolve the tension between human rights and democracy are unconvincing, and I suggest that we should not expect the tension to be solvable in principle.
• The stability of a cosmopolitan political order: Functionalism vs federalism: In this paper, I discuss two kinds of arguments institutional cosmopolitans offer in support of their vision of cosmopolitan order, and argue that drawing on both functionalist and federalist arguments makes their case weaker rather than stronger.
• The forgotten revolution: Challenging conventional wisdom on Sweden's transition to democracy: In this paper, I challenge the established view that Sweden's transition to democracy was exceptionally gradual: At the beginning of the twentieth century, Sweden was one of the least democratic countries in Europe, yet established a full-fledged democracy in the course of a turbulent decade. However, the gradualist myth continues to influence Sweden's official history and inform its democracy promotion abroad.