Petr Špecián
Welcome to my page!
I am an assistant professor affiliated with Charles University and Prague University of Economics and Business in Czechia. My research focuses on epistemic democratisation, and I am is increasingly fascinated by the potential of large language models to revolutionise democratic institutions. Additionally, I have a strong interest in political epistemology and democratic theory.
I serve as a Vice-Dean for Digitalization at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles Univesity, and head of the AI Institutional Transformation Research Group focused on institutional changes induced by artificial intelligence. I teach and write in Czech and English. This site offers information on my publications, courses, and talks.
Contact
Besides this webpage, you can follow my work on ResearchGate, or Google Scholar.
Do not hesitate to reach out via e-mail or social media.
Book
Published by Routledge, my first book Behavioral Political Economy and Democratic Theory: Fortifying Democracy for the Digital Age, examines the friction between modern technology and human rationality within liberal democracies. As we move further into a digitally-driven information age, challenges such as disinformation and extreme political polarization become more prominent.
Using a behavioral economics approach, the book explores solutions to these issues while maintaining democratic values and optimizing democratic decision-making. It advocates for a behaviorally grounded theory of democracy and discusses how our understanding of human rationality's limitations can help shape robust democratic institutions.
Key discussions include the role of rationality (or lack thereof) in democratic choices, the use of behaviorally informed paternalism to manage irrationality, and non-paternalistic methods for bolstering democratic institutions against political irrationality.
Update (March 1, 2024): Now available in paperback for a much friendlier price.