Stein Ringen

Stein Ringen is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. He was a Professor of Welfare Studies at the University of Stockholm and has held visiting professorships and fellowships in Paris, Berlin, Prague, Brno, Barbados, Jerusalem, Sydney, and Harvard University. He has been Assistant Director General in the Norwegian Ministry of Justice, a consultant to the United Nations, and a news and feature reporter with the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. His books include What Democracy Is For: On Freedom and Moral Government (Princeton 2007, Chinese version published by Xinhua 2012), The Korean State and Social Policy: How South Korea Lifted Itself from Poverty and Dictatorship to Affluence and Democracy (co-authored, Oxford 2011), and The Possibility of Politics: A Study in the Political Economy of the Welfare State (Oxford 1987, Transaction Publishers 2006). His most recent is Nation of Devils: Democracy and the Problem of Obedience (Yale University Press, 2013). Ringen is a visiting professor at Richmond and the American International University in London and an Adjunct Professor at Lillehammer University College in Norway.