The University of Chicago Oligarchs Among Us
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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO OLIGARCHS AMONG US: CONFRONTING WEALTH AND POWER IN A DEMOCRATIC AGE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE BY GORDON RICKER ARLEN CHICAGO, ILLINOIS DECEMBER 2017 To my parents, grandparents, and sister, for their love and support Table of Contents List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgments........................................................................................................................... v Chapter One. Introduction: The Oligarchic Challenge to Contemporary Democratic Theory ....... 1 Chapter Two. The Oligarchic Challenge in Ancient Greece: Aristotle ........................................ 26 Chapter Three. The Oligarchic Challenge in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Jeremy Bentham and J.S. Mill ........................................................................................................................................ 52 Chapter Four. The Oligarchic Challenge in Cold War America: Louis Hartz and C. Wright Mills ....................................................................................................................................................... 90 Chapter Five. The New Mixed Regime: A Framework for Plebeian Democracy ...................... 133 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 153 iii List of Tables Table One: The New Mixed Regime .......................................................................................... 137 iv Acknowledgments Doctoral study at the University of Chicago has been the most challenging and rewarding experience of my life, so it is a great pleasure to thank the people who helped me along the way. I was blessed with a dissertation committee diverse in their perspectives but always unified in their encouragement. Through both his graduate seminars on Arendt and Habermas, and through his always stimulating role as an advisor on this project, Patchen Markell encouraged me to tackle important issues and confront those issues with a clear conceptual framework. I especially thank Patchen for his seminar on “Cold War Political Theory,” which piqued my interest in the Cold War period and Louis Hartz specifically. Patchen has the remarkable ability to ask the one big question that totally reframes a student’s thinking about some aspect of their work, and over the years I’ve benefitted from many such questions. Much to my good fortune, Jennifer Pitts arrived at the University of Chicago just as I was beginning graduate school. Her Tocqueville and Mill seminar stoked my interest in the nineteenth-century confrontation between liberalism and democracy, especially as it relates to questions of working class power, and she remained a valuable interlocutor on these issues throughout graduate school. Jennifer’s diligent attention to matters of style and argument and her insistence on letting authors speak for themselves, with a minimum of rhetorical clutter, has helped alert me to the habits necessary for good scholarly writing. Jennifer has always been extremely generous with her time and thorough in her comments. I always come away from our meetings energized by Jennifer’s insistence that a rigorous attention to historical context can enliven scholarly work and contribute to its urgency. v Chiara Cordelli was gracious enough to join my dissertation committee as a busy junior faculty member, and her participation immediately gave the project a bolt of energy. I especially thank Chiara for exposing me to new perspectives from analytic political philosophy. I have only begun to scratch the surface of Chiara’s feedback, and so her insights will linger on as I transition to the next stage of the project. Chiara has also made an effort to keep me on the road to professional success, and I thank her for helping me navigate several job search processes. I hope to continue learning from Chiara well into the future. From my early years of coursework, to my middle years where I labored to conceptualize a dissertation project, to my later years spent completing the project and refining it for publication, John McCormick has been a constant stabilizing presence. His support has been essential to holding my entire academic experience together. In seminars like “Popular Government in Principle and Practice,” John opened my eyes to the vivid worlds of classical Athenian, Roman, and Florentine government, with their rich institutional tapestries. Influenced by John’s passion for making classic texts speak to contemporary concerns, I began composing an article on Aristotle and oligarchy which would ultimately become foundational for the dissertation. John was unwavering in his support for the article, helping me to navigate the peer review process at every stage. John has taught me the importance of taking strong positions and writing with authority and conviction. John has always given me the space to chart my own path even as my work remains heavily influenced by his own. John remains exceedingly helpful on all matters of professionalization, not simply because he understands the disciplinary landscape but because he is passionate about political theory. Finally, John has fostered a true sense of camaraderie among his students, a friendly environment which has made graduate school much more special. vi I have benefitted from coursework, workshop interactions, and conversations with numerous other Chicago faculty, including: Julie Cooper, Demetra Kasimis, Matt Landauer, Emma Saunders-Hastings, Ralph Lerner, Sankar Muthu, Dan Slater, Nathan Tarcov, Linda Zerilli, Lisa Wedeen, Jim Wilson, Robert Gooding-Williams, and Dali Yang. Outside of Chicago I thank Rob Reich, Melissa Schwartzberg, and Jeffrey Winters for insightful conversations. I also thank Enzo Rossi and Eric Schliesser for offering me a platform to develop my ideas further through a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Amsterdam. Portions of this dissertation have previously appeared in the European Journal of Political Theory and Polity, and I thank Sage Publications and the University of Chicago Press for their permission to reprint. My work has been presented to audiences at Harvard University, the University of Chicago, the University of Amsterdam, and the American Political Science Association Annual meeting, and I thank audiences at each venue for their feedback. For supporting my research on the liberal tradition during the early years of graduate school, I thank the Institute for Humane Studies. For supporting my interests in American political thought I thank the staff of the Jack Miller Center, especially Dan Cullen. Will Levine has provided exceptional copyediting assistance, including numerous substantive comments, and the dissertation is much stronger because of it. I thank John Ellison and Catherine Mardikes for assisting me with some translation questions in the Aristotle chapter. I also thank Michael Goldman for his assistance with some of the technical aspects of formatting this document. The friends one meets in graduate school are truly unique, bound together by a shared sense of vocation. Katerina Apostolides, Steven Klein, and Natasha Piano were my rocks throughout the latter years of graduate school. Aside from their always generous feedback on my vii academic work, Natasha, Steven, and Katerina have let me into their lives and allowed me to share in their personal joys. I have also forged especially strong relationships with Yuna Blajer de la Garza, Sarah Johnson, Renee Melton-Klein, Will Levine, Daniel Luban, Emma MacKinnon, Amanda Maher, Danial Nichanian, Rebecca Ploof, Jason Rosensweig, and Tania Islas Weinstein. I will certainly miss getting everyone together for my annual birthday dinner at Pizza Capri and I’ll also miss trying to recruit people to join me at various Chicago Symphony concerts. For his strong friendship over the years, and for showing the way through his own academic success, I thank Chad Marzen. Kat Henry has likewise been a friend whose companionship over the past few years made my time in Chicago more impactful. Sometimes two people are just meant to cross paths: I first met Jason Swadley in John McCormick’s graduate seminar, when we were both assigned to do a presentation on Josiah Ober’s Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens. From there came dinners at Salonica, where our chemistry as conversation partners was immediately apparent. Those conversations blossomed into a rare friendship that has enriched my life considerably and which continues to sustain me. Our shared adventures extend well beyond the academic world, but it goes without saying that Jason has provided constantly insightful feedback on numerous aspects of this project. For their social and academic companionship I also thank: Fabian Arzuaga, Alex Bass, Amanda Blair, Marcus Board, Chris Berk, Ashleigh Campi, John Ellison, Amir Fairdosi, Samuel Galloway, Rohit Goel, Daragh Grant, Alex Haskins, Ann Heffernan, Kat Henry, Uday Jain, Lindsay Knight, Gabriel Mares, JJ McFadden, Claire McKinney, Tejas Parasher, Lucas Pinheiro, Ethan Porter, Bob Reamer, JT Scarry, Jade Schiff, Larry Svabek, Jonny Thakker, and Sarita Zaffini. Over the years I’ve also been fortunate to discuss political theory with Teresa Bejan, viii Jonathan Bruno, Greg