Chiara Cordelli is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago.
[3] Her work focuses on the application of Kantian theory to the issues of philanthropy, privatization, and state legitimacy.
She argues that this "pre-civil" state of privatization lacks popular representation and loses its democratic legitimacy as a result.
[6][7] In his two-book review of The Privatized State and Hélène Landemore's Open Democracy, law professor Christopher Kutz praised Cordelli's book for its "profound critique" of the "neoliberal trend" of privatization, but suggested that Cordelli may place too much faith in public bureaucrats.
[8] Likewise, philosophy professor Lisa Herzog admired the books's "brilliant discussion" of dignity and legitimacy, but had reservations about how the model was silent on what Herzog sees as "overdetermined" wrongs of privatization, as well as questions about how strongly the boundaries of Cordelli's argument hold up to scrutiny.