We had a great discussion yesterday on a number of topics, including the denamics behind “plutocratic populism” and how it is being played out in some of the Supreme Court cases this term. (Don’t worry, if you missed it I will be diving into it more in the next lesson and with our guest speaker in a couple of weeks!)
We also discussed the “authoritarian mindset” (also called the “authoritarian personality”) and why — while these personality traits are typically dispersed equally across the political spectrum — they have become much more predominant within the current Republican party. Part of this, in my view, is related to asymmetrical polarization, which suggests that the American right has gone farther toward the political extreme than the left has towards the opposite pole. We will be unpacking these concepts in more detail in the next few lessons. (And all of this is undergirded by the deterioration in social trust and the dark side of bonding social capital I described in Class 27.)
In the meantime, here are some references that came up in yesterday’s discussion (thanks to those of you who mentioned some of these!):
Rachel Barkow explaining “Chevron deference” and why it is in jeopardy in this Supreme Court term (and why it matters) on the Cafe Insider podcast with Joyce Vance
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (one of the cases Barkow refers to in the podcast)
Relatedly, a surprising outcome in another case this term aimed at disempowering a federal agency (the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau)
Thomas Edsall, “The Seeds Had Been Planted. Trump Didn’t Do It Himself,” The New York Times Opinion, May 15, 2024
John Dean and Bob Altemeyer, Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers
Marc J. Hetherington and Jonathan D. Weiler, Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics
Thank you all again for bearing with the last-minute change and offering such great comments!
Not seeing the John Dean article. The link is reverting to the NYT article previously listed.
How do I unsubscribe please?