“Authoritarian Politics,” presentation at panel on “Dismantling Democracy,” with Kevin B. Anderson, a Marxist-Humanist, and Jessica Pisano, part of NEH-supported colloquium series chaired by Julia Rothenberg and Laura Cohen, and sponsored by the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center at Queensborough Community College of the City University of New York (May 6-on zoom).
The flip side of authoritarianism is democracy, which is performed and protected through a complex web of institutions, documents, social norms, and belief systems. Dr. Jessica Pisano, Associate Professor of Politics at the New School for Social Research and Dr. Kevin Anderson, professor of Sociology, Political Science and Feminist Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara, address the processes through which the conditions for the practice of democracy can and have been eroded in the past and present.
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Peter Marcuse on November 23, 2020 at 2:40 pmIs a written text of Kevin Anderson’s paper availale? Peter Marcuse
Reply- Hans Bakker on December 5, 2020 at 4:45 pm
I enjoyed listening to these talks and appreciate the KHC for sponsoring them. The contrast with “liberal democracy” needs to be discussed in more depth (IMHO), especially in terms of the comment that “even” under FDR as POTUS there were authoritarian aspects (e.g. the increased importance of the FBI). But of course a Marxist analysis of the US, Canada, France, the UK, Germany, etc. would require looking at all levels of authoritarianism. Prof. Anderson touched on that with his anecdote about being a taxi driver. In the movie about the young man who later became the Vice President — Dick Cheney — it is clear that he probably also experienced that kind of authoritarianism, which makes me wonder what the U.S. would have been like if he had not had those kinds of experiences (at least as depicted in that film).
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Is a written text of Kevin Anderson’s paper availale? Peter Marcuse
I enjoyed listening to these talks and appreciate the KHC for sponsoring them. The contrast with “liberal democracy” needs to be discussed in more depth (IMHO), especially in terms of the comment that “even” under FDR as POTUS there were authoritarian aspects (e.g. the increased importance of the FBI). But of course a Marxist analysis of the US, Canada, France, the UK, Germany, etc. would require looking at all levels of authoritarianism. Prof. Anderson touched on that with his anecdote about being a taxi driver. In the movie about the young man who later became the Vice President — Dick Cheney — it is clear that he probably also experienced that kind of authoritarianism, which makes me wonder what the U.S. would have been like if he had not had those kinds of experiences (at least as depicted in that film).