Authoritarianism

Madison, Hamilton, and Good Sleep

Another semester of teaching around here is winding down and yesterday afternoon was the last seminar. My department happens to have a number of senior seminars that are "variable topics" courses; the precise content may differ semester to semester depending on the instructor.  The course was Political Science 484, Topics in U.S. Politics and Policy. I've taught this particular section in the past, but decided last winter that I would try something different.

I've written a number of other posts in this blog expressing considerable unease with the direction of the Trump Administration on a number of policy fronts, most notably international trade. However, the descent of global politics into ever-more dangerous forms of illiberal populism routinely sets off alarm bells that are both scholarly and personal. For the first year or so of the Trump Administration, I placed a lot of faith in James Madison and Alexander Hamilton to help me sleep at night. I knew well-before election night in 2016 that the wisdom of their constitutional design would be put to the test. Moreover, through much of 2017 and 2018, I regularly made the case (to students and in my public talks) that Madison's design was holding up reasonably well. I regularly argued that we were a long way from one of the worst years in American history, 1968, when Vietnam began to look like a lost cause, cities burned, and political assassinations rocked the country.

I understood 2016's populist frustration on both the left and the right necessitated change-- some of it undoubtedly welcome-- but, I never thought the Trump Presidency would so regularly crash into and test the institutional guardrails put in place 230 years ago. I thought (hoped) he would eventually lean toward being a normal president. Yet, aside from doing my civic duty at the ballot box, what could I actually do about any of it?

Seminar To the (Emotional) Rescue?

I find the hour-by-hour nonsense spewing off a certain someone's Twitter feed, or the half-baked pundit class's reactions to it all on 24 hour cable news unhelpful. Breathless hyperbole is standard fare. In fact, depending on the cable news outlet you are watching, or the social media feed you are receiving, the latest action by the U.S. president is either the outrage that will finally result in his removal from office or reason to elevate him above Lincoln on the list of greatest American presidents.

There are times when the immediacy of social media or cable news serve a purpose, but perspective is usually not one of those purposes. The historians that are often trotted out on cable news to give everyone some of that "perspective" do their best, but are limited just a few, unsatisfying, minutes.

I needed something different; a way to read and talk about what was going on that couldn't be found on cable news or in 280 characters.  Moreover, I wanted to read books! I am embarrassed to admit how infrequently I read books cover-to-cover, either for work or for pleasure. It's not as if I don't read a lot, but entirely too much of what I read these days has a utilitarian quality to it; I mine what's in it for a specific purpose.

Reading books as the primary structure for a weekly seminar isn't something I've encountered anyone doing since I participated in a similarly structured seminar as an undergraduate; that was some time ago now. At the time, I felt like it was a struggle to wade through a 200+ page novel in a single week and keep up with readings in four other classes. In retrospect, it was a luxury and a privilege I've never forgotten. Reading multiple authors in their original form, free of the commentary and jargon that comes with disciplinary analyses of these works was a treat. 




The Books

Hence, out of a mix of nostalgia and political anxiety, began crafting a list of books, seizing on the 9 listed here:

Once And Future Liberal, Mark Lilla

On Tyranny, Timothy Snyder

Animal Farm, George Orwell

Road to Serfdom, Friedrich Hayek

Property and Freedom, Richard Pipes

Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman
1984, George Orwell
The Trial, Franz Kafka
Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt 

In making this list, I tried to select pieces that were relatively short (Pipes, Kafka, and Arendt were hefty at 300pgs each). Importantly, I didn't initially construct my list aiming for a group of depressing books about aspects of authoritarianism. Indeed, one of the pieces I wanted to read in the original was Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville. I also had John Stuart Mill and John Locke on my initial list. I also wanted to deal with some contemporary political economy debates, so I initially had Wealth of Nations and Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith. I also had some contemporary political books on my initial list, including Immoral Majority by Ben Howe, American Carnage by Tim Alberta, and Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance.

Through a process of elimination, my list ended up focused on some of the 20th Century's most pointed debates around capitalism, freedom, and authoritarianism; what's old is new again. Interestingly, I wasn't entirely sure how well each of these pieces would hold together around the theme of "authoritarianism." I suspected they would, but most were pieces I had not read in more than 20 years. Others, such as Arendt, I would be engaging in the original for the very first time.

What Did I Learn?

It's impossible to summarize the discussions of each book here. Besides, these blog posts ramble enough already. However, three big things jump out at me:

1) I Love Books. Moreover, I enjoy grinding my teeth over, and stewing about, what I'm reading. Indeed, I probably enjoyed it a little too much since I spent far more time preparing for this course than I intended.

2) Sober Reads, Difficult Lessons.  I didn't go out of my way to pick somber pieces, but I guess there's a case to be made for reading something into my current psychology from my syllabus. As noted above, I am a bit less confident in the stability of Madison's design than I was 12 months ago. The list of grim reads reinforced some of the reasons for my concern. Indeed, as I consumed each book, digested the warnings, thought about the how the advent authoritarianism is in most cases a slow-moving affair, a bottomless pit of contemporary parallels were flooded my thoughts. Whether it was Nazi Germany, Hugo Chavez' Venezuela, Russia, Turkey, Pre-Brexit UK, or Trump's America, the impact of pandering to populism, intrusion of disinformation, discrediting of fact and expertise, and the erosion of civil liberties are seldom immediately obvious. It's slow, sometimes imperceptible, change that is most pernicious. Only in the rear-view mirror that this creeping move toward authoritarianism looks so obvious to many people.

There is a kind of unreality to the warnings of Hayek, Orwell, or Kafka about the power of the state, or how concentrated power corrupts so absolutely. Sure, Animal Farm has direct parallels with Stalinist Russia. But because it uses animals to replace the actual characters, there's an unreality, a cartoonish quality, to all of it. Moreover, Road to Serfdom, 1984, and The Trial are so extreme and over the top one has to wonder whether the warnings within are not some overly-pessimistic apocalyptic exaggeration?

But then there's Arendt. Real people. Real events. Real banality. Consequences so catastrophic that it's hard to wrap your mind around how easily it unfolded.

I suppose one could charge me with confirmation bias in the construction of my syllabus. However, the books we read amounted to a powerful affirmation that the building alarm I've felt in the last couple of years is justified. Collectively, they represent a powerful shot across the bow.

I'm not getting carried away here. We are a long way from 1984's Oceania. The advent of single-payer healthcare would not shift America radically toward a socialist dystopia. And, although the conspiratorial among us think the "deep state" has run amok-- I share a healthy skepticism of the state-- we are a long way from anyone becoming "K" in confronting a faceless bureaucracy.

That said, there are far too many parts of the world, including the United States, where we are a lot closer to all of this than we were a few years ago.

3) Cautious Optimism Prevailed. Despite the grim reading list, it was deeply cathartic to read and debate the substance of each book. It was cathartic to share with each other our reads of these pieces in connection with what we've each been observing unfolding around us.

I was a bit fearful I'd encounter some groupthink among students in terms of their reactions to these books. After all, most were written at the onset of the Cold War's tectonic ideological debates around the merits of communism and democracy, planned and market economies, civil liberties and the police state. I worried students would read this material and see it as the stodgy product of a long-gone era. Moreover, I had started to notice in my first-year students an alarming lack of awareness about the political world they were supposedly studying. Fewer and fewer read newspapers or watch the news. More and more are stuck in their social media echo chambers, chambers I was starting to suspect were devoid of public affairs.

Faith restored... at least where our senior students are concerned, engagement with public affairs is alive and well. A refreshingly large number of students across both of my courses this term were actively involved working for local campaigns in the recent federal election. Moreover, not only did they think deeply about what they were reading, it seemed to be resonating with them in terms of what they were observing around them.

Never Again?

This is, of course, a course I'd love to shelve and never offer again. It will take a hiatus in Fall 2020 in favour of teaching U.S. domestic politics. It would be nice to see conditions around the globe improve and concerns about authoritarianism abate. I won't be on it, but we can always hope.

We began the semester with Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. While Snyder is in its own way grim-- he highlights the signs of tyranny with reference to the Holocaust-- he also offers suggestions for how we as individuals can forestall progress on the road to tyranny. Here they are:

1) Do not obey in advance
2) Defend institutions
3) Beware the one-party state
4) Take responsibility for the face of the world
5) Remember professional ethics
6) Be wary of paramilitaries
7) Be reflective if you must be armed
8) Stand out
9) Be kind to our language
10) Believe in truth
11) Investigate
12) Make eye contact and small talk
13) Practice corporeal politics
14) Establish a private life
15) Contribute to good causes
16) Learn from peers in other countries
17) Listen for dangerous words
18) Be calm when the unthinkable arrives
19) Be a patriot
20) Be as courageous as you can