Dr. Guy Paltieli


Areas of specialization:

Political Theory, History of Political Thought


Areas of competence:

Technology and Democracy, Israeli Politics


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I wrote my doctoral thesis at The University of Cambridge under the supervision of Dr. Duncan Kelly and Prof. David Runciman. My thesis, Thinking Alone: The Meaning of Solitude in Democratic Thought, studies the meaning of solitude in democratic thought, from Tocqueville to the Internet. Focusing mainly on the 19th century, the thesis explores the importance of solitude in the formation of democratic thought and its meaning for political thinkers at the time. It also explains why solitude became a negative concept in contemporary political thought and how it can be brought back into it in a positive manner. I gained my BA in Political Science and History and MA in Political Science at Tel Aviv University. My MA thesis, written under the supervision of Prof. Amal Jamal, studied the development of the concept of sovereignty in Jacques Derrida’s thought.

My current project at the Polonsky Academy, titled “Privacy, Presence and Participation: Changing Political Concepts in a Visible Democracy”, wishes to understand how technology changes the meaning of political concepts and aims to construct a democratic theory for the Internet age. In order to do this, the research combines contemporary political theory, history of political thought and internet studies. I am interested in various topics such as political theory and the history of political thought, the influence of technology on democracy and Israeli politics.