#skocpol

[weil-weil-lautre]

Skocpol accepts uncritically the venerable notion that the American working class (or the white male working class) has been universally enfranchised since the age of Jackson. This is an important ingredient in her analysis, and it has a pedigree that goes back at least as far as the 192os, to pioneering labor economist John R. Commons. But an immersion in the recent monographic literature (or the primary sources) would suggest that this notion of an early, durable universal suffrage is deeply flawed: In town after town, neighborhood after neighborhood, from San Francisco to Tampa to Pittsburgh to Brooklyn to Worcester, there were large segments of the working class that were not enfranchised until the 1930s. As Skocpol herself notes, the late nineteenth century witnessed the passage of laws, in state after state, that were designed to limit the votes of both immigrants and the poor (as well as African-Americans). And those laws-applied to a working class that was rapidly growing, extremely mobile and increasingly either foreign-born or African-American-had an impact: In many areas, a third or more of the working class lacked the franchise, and even among union members enfranchisement was far less universal than Skocpol claims. All of which implies that interpretations of American politics that rely heavily on presumptions of universal (white, male) suffrage need to be set aside.

Alex Keyssar, “The Long and Winding Road” (The Nation 1993)

[nietzscheinpinstripes]

The Revolution from Above

In the mandatory text in this week’s seminar “Bringing the State back in” by Theda Skocpol, the author stresses the present underestimating and the now reoccurring interest of “the state” as an actor in politics.

Particularly interesting from my point of view was the part of the text that dealt with “autonomous state action”, especially when she was referring to Timberger’s “Revolution from Above”. In her study, Timberger focuses on historical cases in which autonomous bureaucrats seized power in the government of a state to press reforms to reorganize the economy and the society in their country. From the examples Skocpol mentions I chose the Japanese Meiji Restoration as the most useful example to illustrate my point in this blog. The Meiji Restoration was a period of political restoration that took place in Japan in the 1860’s and helped Japan transform into a more modern state. Basically the main part of the restoration was led by a small group of bureaucratic oligarchs in the Japanese government who pressed social and economic reforms to modernize Japanese society and get away from the old feudal system which was still in charge by then.

I think this is maybe the most illustrative example for Timberg’s and Skocpol’s point that a group of skilled experts and bureaucrats can use the power of the state effectively to reform its politics and economy. Though it must be stressed out that Skocpol labels this as “nonconstitutional ruling”, which leads us to our next point; exploring the possibilities for experts and bureaucrats to harness this power in constitutional conform ways.   Skocpol gives the US-American agricultural reforms during the New Deal period as a good example for autonomous action within a state. I asked myself the question whether we could find more recent examples for constitutional autonomous state action by skilled experts. First we need to realize that this actions, as also stated by Skocpol, happen in a certain opportunity frame, mostly when the country is facing a serious crisis in one or more political fields. In the case of Japan in the 1860’s it was the threat of western colonial powers and their interest in eastern Asian, in the case of the USA it was an overall economic crisis and the aftermath of the World War I.

Facing these facts I would claim that a good recent example for autonomous action by skilled experts in a state would be the Italian government under Mario Monti. Monti, himself not a politician but a financial expert was installed as head of the state after the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi in 2011 to lead a technocratic government to face the Italian debt crisis.

This example could show a new development of Skocpol’s point, for in the Italian case we don’t have a group of experts using their knowledge and skills “silently” but are assigned to do so in times of crisis. The use of expertocratic governments in a democratic state if they match the constitutional rights could therefore be a short-term solution to face severe crisis in said state. Even better though would be a stronger tie between experts and politicians in the first place to even try and prevent further crisis and still uphold the democratic process of participation of the citizens.

[naplesteaparty-blog-blog]

Tea Party Passions

Amplify’d from harvardmagazine.com

The Tea Party is a marvel of modern American politics. What began in February 2009 with a CNBC commentator’s tirade against federal support for borrowers with underwater home loans quickly built into a movement that altered the 2010 congressional elections and is now shaping the 2012 Republican presidential field.

In a new book, The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism (Oxford University Press), Thomas professor of government and sociology Theda Skocpol and graduate student Vanessa Williamson offer one of the first comprehensive, empirical analyses of this phenomenon, which Skocpol calls “an innovative version” of “recurrent populist upsurges on the right.” The authors draw on existing surveys of Tea Partiers and observation of their events, as well as on the in-depth interviews they conducted with dozens of Tea Party activists. Unlike surveys, which Skocpol says ask questions with “precooked” answers, these hour-long interviews allowed Tea Party members to speak for themselves. The researchers could note the words and phrases interviewees used repeatedly, such as “freeloaders” and “take our country back.” She and Williamson could also “hear the emotion,” she adds. “You hear what they’re afraid of, what they’re hopeful about.”

But the Tea Party is more than these grass-roots activists. Skocpol and Williamson include in the movement conservative media outlets, such as Fox News, and an elite group of big Republican donors and well-funded free-market advocacy organizations, such as Americans for Prosperity, co-founded by billionaire David H. Koch. These parts “sometimes work at cross purposes and sometimes work together,” Skocpol explains. Thus grass-roots members may support Social Security, while the advocacy groups seek to radically restructure social programs. Skocpol says such groups associated themselves with the Tea Party to capitalize on the grass-roots enthusiasm, but promote their own agendas.

Read more at harvardmagazine.com

 See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1kqjb