Daniele Archibugi (born 17 July 1958 in Rome, Italy) is an Italian economic and political theorist. He works on the economics and policy of innovation and technological change, on the political theory of international relations and on political and technological globalisation.
Biography Archibugi graduated with an Economics degree at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" with Federico Caffè, and obtained a D.Phil. degree at SPRU of the University of Sussex under the mentorship of Christopher Freeman and Keith Pavitt. He has worked and taught at the Universities of Sussex, Naples, Cambridge, Sapienza University of Rome, LUISS University of Rome, London School of Economics and Harvard University. He held courses at Asian Universities including the Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto and SWEFE University, Chengdu. He has also been visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, University of Buenos Aires and Autonomous University of Madrid. In June 2006, Archibugi was appointed Honorary Professor at the University of Sussex and in 2016 Honorary Member of the French Research Network of Innovation.
After several decades at the Italian National Research Council in Rome, he now works at the Universitas Mercatorum and at Birkbeck, University of London.
Cosmopolitan democracy
Archibugi has been a key figure in the development of cosmopolitanism and of cosmopolitan democracy in particular,Daniele Archibugi and David Held, Cosmopolitan Democracy: Paths and Agents. Ethics & International Affairs. 25 (4): 433-461, Winter 2011. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0892679411000360. namely the attempt to apply some of the norms and values of democracy to global politics.See Tom Cassauwers, Interview with Daniele Archibugi, E-INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, SEP 14 2015. He has advocated substantial reforms in international organizations, including the United Nations and the European Union.See Allen White, On the Cosmopolitan Path, An Interview with Daniele Archibugi, Great Transition Initiative, April 2018.
He has criticized the G7, G8 and G20 summits as undemocratic and urged for more transparent gathering for global politics.D. Archibugi, The G20 is a luxury we can't afford, The Guardian, Saturday 28 March 2008 He has also taken position against a League of Democracies arguing that the same demands will be better served by a democratic reform of the United Nations.D. Archibugi, A League of Democracies or a Democratic United Nations, Harvard International Review, October 2008 Archibugi is among the promoters of a directly elected World Parliament,Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly and a supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which campaigns for democratic reform in the United Nations.
Global justice
Supporter of the individual responsibility of the rulers in the case of international crimes, Archibugi has also actively supported, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the creation of an International Criminal Court, collaborating both with the jurists of the UN International Law Commission and with the Italian Government.see Daniele Archibugi and Alice Pease, Crime and Global Justice: The Dynamics of International Punishment, Polity, 2018. Over the years, he has become increasingly skeptical for the inability of international courts to incriminate the strongest.Daniele Archibugi and Alice Pease, International Criminal Justice: from past to future, Opendemocracy, 5 February 2018. He therefore endorsed other quasi-judicial instruments for human rights protection such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions and the Opinion Tribunals.Daniele Archibugi's Conference at the City University of New York, Do we Need a Global Criminal Justice?, 9 April 2018.
Globalization of innovation
Archibugi developed a taxonomy of the globalization of technology with Jonathan Michie, where they distinguish among three main devices of transmission of know-how: international exploitation of innovations, global generation of innovation and global collaborations in science and technology.Daniele Archibugi and Jonathan Michie, The Globalization of Technology: A New Taxonomy, "Cambridge Journal of Economics", vol. 19, no. 1, 1995, pp. 121-140,
As Chairman of an Expert Group of the European Research Area on international collaboration in science and technology, he has pointed out that the demographic decline in Europe, combined with the lack of vocation of youngsters for hard sciences, will generate a dramatic shortage of qualified workers in less than a generation.Daniele Archibugi (Chair) Opening to the World. Opening to the World: International Cooperation in Science and Technology, European Research Area, 2008, This will jeopardize the standard of livings of Europeans in key areas such as medical research, information technologies and knowledge intensive industries. Archibugi has urged for substantial revisions to European immigration policy in order to accommodate at least two million qualified students in science, engineering from developing countries in a decade.
Reconstruction economics after economic crises
As a scholar of the business cycles, Archibugi combines the Keynesian perspective derived from his mentors Federico Caffè, Hyman Minsky and Nicholas Kaldor with the Schumpeterian perspective derived from Christopher Freeman and the Science Policy Research Unit of the University of Sussex.D. Archibugi and A. Filippetti, Innovation and economic crisis. Innovation and economic crisis. Lessons and prospects from the economic downturn , Routledge, London, 2012. By combining the two perspectives, Archibugi argued that to get out of a crisis, a country must make a major effort to enter into emerging industries.D. Archibugi, An investment plan for European reconstruction, Social Europe 12 May 2020. In the absence of entrepreneurial spirit in the sector private, the public sector must develop the managerial capacity to exploit scientific and technological opportunities,D. Archibugi, The Airbus lesson: How new companies can be generated to aid Europe's post-Covid reconstruction, London School of Economics and Political Science Blog Europp, 11 May 2020. also to safeguard public goods.D. Archibugi, A. Filippetti & M. Frenz, Investment in innovation for European recovery: a public policy priority, Science & Public Policy, November 2019. This acquires more relevance in front of major events, including the environmental crisis and the economic crisis created by Covid-19.D. Archibugi, A. Filippetti & M. Frenz, Europe needs a green deal, Research Europe, 2 April 2020.
Family relations
He is the son of urban and economic planner Franco Archibugi and of writer Muzi Epifani. He has several brothers and sisters including film director Francesca Archibugi and political scientist Mathias Koenig-Archibugi.
His ancestors include Roman patriots Francesco and Alessandro Archibugi, both volunteers in the Roman University Battalion of the Roman Republic (1849) led by of Carlo Armellini, Giuseppe Mazzini and Aurelio Saffi. Both of them participated in the military actions led by General Giuseppe Garibaldi and died in the defence of the Roman Republic of June 1849 fighting against the invasion of Republican France led by Louis Napoleon. Archibugi has reminded this episode to show the fragility of the democratic peace theory.See D. Archibugi, "From peace between democracies to global democracy", in D. Archibugi, M. Koenig-Archibugi and R. Marchetti, Global DemocracyNormative and Empirical Perspectives, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2011.
Main books
In the field of international relations and political studies
(with David Held), Cosmopolitan Democracy. An Agenda for a New World Order, (Polity Press, 1995) (with David Held and Martin Koehler), Reimagining Political Community. Studies in Cosmopolitan Democracy, (Polity Press, 1998) Debating Cosmopolitics, (Verso Books, 2003) The Global Commonwealth of Citizens. Toward Cosmopolitan Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2008, (with Guido Montani), European Democracy and Cosmopolitan Democracy (The Altiero Spinelli Institute for Federalist Studies, 2011) (with Mathias Koenig-Archibugi and Raffaele Marchetti), Global Democracy: Normative and Empirical Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2011) (with Ali Emre Benli), Claiming Citizenship Rights in Europe. Emerging Challenges and Political Agents (Routledge, 2018) (with Alice Pease), Crime and Global Justice: The Dynamics of International Punishment, (Polity Press, 2018)
In the field of science, technology and innovation policy
(with Mario Pianta), The Technological Specialization of Advanced Countries, preface by Jacques Delors (Kluwer, 1992) (with Jonathan Michie), Technology, Globalisation and Economic Performance, preface by Richard R. Nelson (Cambridge University Press, 1997) (with Jonathan Michie), Trade, Growth and Technical Change, preface by Nathan Rosenberg (Cambridge University Press, 1998); (with Jonathan Michie), Innovation Policy in a Global Economy, preface by Christopher Freeman (Cambridge University Press, 1999); (with Bengt-Åke Lundvall), The Globalising Learning Economy (Oxford University Press, 2001). (with Andrea Filippetti, Innovation and Economic Crises. Lessons and Prospects from the Economic Downturn (Routledge, 2011). (with Andrea Filippetti, The Handbook of Global Science, Technology and Innovation (John Wiley & Sons, 2015).
Main refereed articles
In the field of international relations and political studies
(with Marco Cellini and Azzurra Malgieri), The Reform of the UN Security Council: What Are the Issues?, ("Global Governance", 2025, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 137–162), doi.org/10.1163/19426720-03102003 (with Marco Cellini and Mattia Vitiello), Refugees in the European Union: From Emergency Alarmism to Common Management, ("Journal of Contemporary European Studies", 2021, pp. 1–19) Cosmopolitan Democracy as a Method for Addressing Controversies, ("Justice Magazine", no. 62, 2019) (with Marco Cellini), The Internal and External Levers to achieve Global Democracy, ("Journal of Global Policy", vol. 8, no. S6, 2017, Pages 65–77) (with David Held), Cosmopolitan Democracy: Paths and Agents, ("Ethics and International Affairs", vol. 25 no. 4, 2011, pp. 433–461) (with Marina Chiarugi), Piracy Challenges Global Governance, ("Opendemocracy", April 2009) A League of Democracies or a Democratic United Nations?, ("Harvard International Review", vol. 30, no. 2, 2008) Exporting Democracy. What Have We Learnt from Iraq?, ("Dissent", Spring 2007, pp. 40–42) The Language of Democracy: Vernacular or Esperanto? A Comparison between the Multiculturalist and Cosmopolitan Perspectives, ("Political Studies", vol. 53, no. 3, 2005, pp. 537–555) Notes on Democracy in the European Union, ("The European Union Review", vol. 10, no. 1, 2005, pp. 75–86) Cosmopolitan Democracy and its Critics: A Review, ("European Journal of International Relations", vol.10, no. 3, 2004, pp. 437–473) Cosmopolitan Guidelines for Humanitarian Intervention, ("Alternatives. Global, Local, Political", vol. 29, no. 1, 2004, pp. 1–21) A Critical Analysis of the Self-determination of Peoples. A Cosmopolitan Perspective, ("Constellations. An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory", vol. 10, no. 4, 2003, pp. 488–505) (with Iris Marion Young), Toward a Global Rule of Law, ("Dissent", vol. 48, Spring 2002, pp. 27–32) Demos and Cosmopolis, ("New Left Review", new series, no. 13, Jan – Feb 2002, pp. 24 – 38) Cosmopolitical Democracy , ("New Left Review", new series, no. 4, July Aug 2000, pp. 137 – 150) So What if Democracies Don't Fight Each Other?, ("Peace Review", vol. 9. no. 3, 1997, pp. 379–384) Immanuel Kant, Cosmopolitan Law and Peace, ("European Journal of International Relations", vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 429–456)