In this episode of the Review of Democracy podcast, political theorist Shuk Ying Chan (UCL) discusses her new book Postcolonial Global Justice (Princeton University Press, 2026), which develops an account of postcolonial global justice as social equality by thinking with anticolonial leaders Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Kwame Nkrumah and Jawaharlal Nehru.
Chan explains her method of “historically inflected normative theorizing”, which treats specific historical actors as interlocutors in developing normative principles for the present. The discussion also explores how the nation-state was often an instrument used by these thinkers to pursue a broader ideal of relational equality, and Chan’s conceptualization of postcolonial global justice as a matter of social equality, focusing on the ability of individuals and groups to “stand as equals”. Finally, the conversation turns to contemporary problems of undemocratic global governance and Chan’s proposal to rethink global democracy in terms of horizontal inequalities of power between groups, rather than only a vertical gap between individuals and global institutions.
Shuk Ying Chan is an Assistant Professor of Political Theory at University College London in the United Kingdom. Her dissertation was co-winner of the 2022 Leo Strauss Award.
The interview was conducted by Alexandra Kardos. Lilit Hakobyan edited the audio file.
