Dr Maxim van Asseldonk is assistant professor in philosophy of law at Radboud University.
His research is concerned with the philosophical foundations of democracy, especially focusing on the following issues:
- The tension between (radical) democratic openness and constitutional certainty, including the role of human rights therein;
- The problem of collective identity formation, particularly in conditions of radical plurality.
He carries out this research especially from the perspective of theories of radical democracy, with specific interest in the works of, among others, Claude Lefort, Jacques Rancière, Bonnie Honig, and Jean-Luc Nancy.
Maxim obtained his PhD from the University of Aberdeen, funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie bursary awarded by the European Commission and held by the Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society, and the Rule of Law, successfully defending a thesis analysing the democratic weaknesses and potentials of the concept of constituent power. Previously, he studied political philosophy and human geography at Radboud University.
Contact: maxim.vanasseldonk@ru.nl
KEY Publications
- van Asseldonk, Maxim. 2025. “Claude Lefort in the age of the total constitution,” in Global Constitutionalism (in press).
- van Asseldonk, Maxim and Henk van Houtum. 2025. “We have never owned ‘Us’: A philosophical critique of nationalist b/ordering and othering ideologies,” in Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. Full text
- van Asseldonk, Maxim. 2024. “Democracy without demos: a prefigurative approach to democratic peoplehood,” in Krisis: Journal for Contemporary Philosophy 44(2): 2-16. Full text
- van Asseldonk, Maxim. 2023. “Robert Cover as a Radical Democrat,” in Law and Critique 34: 185-205. Full text
- van Asseldonk, Maxim. 2022. “Who, the people? Rethinking constituent power as praxis,” in Philosophy & Social Criticism 48(3): 361-385. Full text
- ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7026-6790
