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A Political Science Manifesto for the Age of Populism

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A Political Science Manifesto for the Age of Populism “Every engaged citizen, every political activist living in our times, which are bad times, needs to read this book.” Michael Walzer A POLITICAL SCIENCE MANIFESTO FOR THE AGE OF POPULISM Downloaded fromDAVID https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: M. 170.106.34.90 , on RICCI03 Oct 2021 at 04:40:29, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/8FA8474DA61700F0A5BB4EB1A9A8D84F ii Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.34.90, on 03 Oct 2021 at 04:40:29, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/8FA8474DA61700F0A5BB4EB1A9A8D84F i A POLITICAL SCIENCE MANIFESTO FOR THE AGE OF POPULISM Populism and authoritarian-populist parties have surged throughout the world in the twenty- fi rst century. In the United States, it’s diffi - cult to pinpoint the cause, yet Donald Trump appears to have become the poster president. David Ricci, in this call to arms, thinks Trump is symptomatic of a myriad of changes that have caused a crisis among Americans – namely, mass economic and creative destruction: automation, outsourcing, deindustrialization, globalization, priva- tization, fi nancialization, digitalization, and the rise of temporary jobs – all breeding resentment, which then breeds populism. Rather than dwelling on symptoms, Ricci focuses on the root of our nation’s problems. Thus, creative destruction, aiming at perpetual economic growth, encouraged by neoliberalism, creates the economic inequality that fuels resentment and leads to increased populism, putting democracy at risk. In these circumstances, he urges political scientists to highlight this destruction in meaningful and substantive ways, that is, to use empirical realism to put human beings back into politics. Ricci’s straightforward argument conveys a sense of political urgency, grappling with real- world problems and working to trans- form abstract speculations into tangible, useful tools. The result is a deeply passionate book, important not only to political scientists, but to anyone who cares about public life. David M. Ricci lives in Mevaseret, and is a former chair of the depart ments of American Studies and Political Science at the Hebrew University. He has been a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and the Brookings Institution. He is the author of seven books, including The Tragedy of Political Science (1984), The Transformation of American Politics (1993), Good Citizenship in America (2004), Why Conservatives Tell Stories and Liberals Don't (2011), and Politics Without Stories (2016). This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.34.90, on 03 Oct 2021 at 04:40:29, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/8FA8474DA61700F0A5BB4EB1A9A8D84F ii Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.34.90, on 03 Oct 2021 at 04:40:29, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/8FA8474DA61700F0A5BB4EB1A9A8D84F iii A Political Science Manifesto for the Age of Populism Challenging Growth, Markets, Inequality, and Resentment DAVID M. RICCI The Hebrew University Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.34.90, on 03 Oct 2021 at 04:40:29, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/8FA8474DA61700F0A5BB4EB1A9A8D84F iv University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia 314– 321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025, India 79 Anson Road, #06- 04/ 06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/ 9781108479424 DOI: 10.1017/ 9781108785440 © David M. Ricci 2020 This work is in copyright. It is subject to statutory exceptions and to the provisions of relevant licensing agreements; with the exception of the Creative Commons version the link for which is provided below, no reproduction of any part of this work may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. An online version of this work is published at doi.org/10.1017/9781108785440 under a Creative Commons Open Access license CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 which permits re-use, distribution and reproduction in any medium for non-commercial purposes providing appropriate credit to the original work is given. You may not distribute derivative works without permission. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 All versions of this work may contain content reproduced under license from third parties. Permission to reproduce this third-party content must be obtained from these third-parties directly. When citing this work, please include a reference to the DOI 10.1017/ 9781108785440 First published 2020 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. ISBN 978- 1- 108- 47942- 4 Hardback ISBN 978- 1- 108- 74305- 1 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third- party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.34.90, on 03 Oct 2021 at 04:40:29, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/8FA8474DA61700F0A5BB4EB1A9A8D84F v CONTENTS Preface page vii 1 THE AGE OF POPULISM 1 2 THE TEMPLE OF SCIENCE 13 3 MAINSTREAM ECONOMICS 29 4 CREATIVE DESTRUCTION 45 5 TARGETING NEOLIBERALISM 61 6 HUMANISM 92 7 A STORY FOR POLITICAL SCIENCE 110 Notes 129 Name index 235 Subject index 243 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.34.90, on 03 Oct 2021 at 04:40:29, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/8FA8474DA61700F0A5BB4EB1A9A8D84F vi Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.34.90, on 03 Oct 2021 at 04:40:29, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/8FA8474DA61700F0A5BB4EB1A9A8D84F vii PREFACE* Where is this book located in political thought today? In recent years, scholars, politicians, think tankers, journalists, and pundits have conducted an anxious debate about how democ- racy may succumb to what they call populism. Such thinkers do not fear a revival of late- nineteenth- century agrarian unrest in America, when Mary Pease told farmers they should raise less corn and more hell. But they have already published books such as John Judis, The Populist Explosion (2016),1 Jan- Werner Muller, What is Populism? (2016),2 Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens, Democracy in America (2017),3 Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism (2017),4 Pankaj Mishra, Age of Anger (2017),5 Mark Lilla, The Once and Future Liberal (2017),6 David Runciman, How Democracy Ends (2018),7 Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die (2018),8 William Galston, Anti- Pluralism (2018),9 Francis Fukuyama, Identity (2018),10 Robert Kuttner, Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? (2018),11 Barry Eichengreen, The Populist Temptation (2018),12 Yascha Mounk, The People vs. Democracy (2018),13 John Campbell, American Discontent (2018),14 Paul Starr, Entrenchment (2019),15 and Sophia Rosenfeld, Demo- cracy and Truth (2019).16 The debate has examined many trends and events to explain the recent rise of populist governments and the success of popu- list candidates for public office in many countries. Opinions vary, but most of the debaters agree that an underlying cause * This book cites, and quotes from, the presidential addresses of fourteen presidents of the American Political Science Association (APSA). I found that those addresses were especially relevant to my project because their authors stepped back from personal research to comment knowledgeably on their discipline – for example, on what it should investigate, and on how it should report its findings. D.R. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.34.90, on 03 Oct 2021 at 04:40:29, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/8FA8474DA61700F0A5BB4EB1A9A8D84F viii Preface of contemporary populism is the resentment many people feel, with considerable justification, because of disruptive changes forced on their lives by the modern economy, which may be described as capitalism, free enterprise, neoliberalism, global- ization, or a market- based society.17 Some of those changes – in working conditions, in the distri- bution of wealth, in the use of drastically new products such as smartphones, and more – are regarded by American Political Science Association president (2019) Rogers Smith as belittling beliefs that frame virtuous lives, as challenging traditional stations in society, and as deflating narratives that inspire important groups of citizens. If this goes on, some vital social bonds may vanish and some essential democratic institutions may collapse.18 In these circumstances, various parties to the debate have discussed what modern societies might do to avoid sinking into full- blown populism.
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