Daniel Little
March on Selma, 1965 Human beings have attitudes, behaviors, habits, stereotypes, and values. And somehow these mental attributes are developed or acquired in the course of normal human social life. But how, when, and with what results does this process work? And how persistent are a set of attitudes and values once established in the …
Continue reading "How are an individual’s political values formed?"
The United States is a multicultural democracy. This is simply an empirical fact; the country is a democracy (imperfect by many important measures); and it is multiracial, multi-ethnic, and multi-national. So what is involved in helping bring about a transition to an "inclusive" multicultural democracy -- a social and political order embodying fundamental equality across …
Continue reading "Group identities and inclusive multicultural democracy"
The United States has a long history of racism against African-Americans, at multiple levels. At the level of individuals, we have a history of negative attitudes, stereotypes, fears, and antagonisms that are built into the social consciousness of white men and women about African-Americans. Racist attitudes about "genetic inferiority", crime, and other negative stereotypes have …
Continue reading "New thinking about generational change about race"
Many countries are facing a resurgence of racism and ethnic hostility in the current political environment, catalyzed in complicated ways by the refugee crisis in Europe, the Brexit vote in the UK, and the rise of trumpism in the United States. Animosity against black and brown people, immigrants, and Muslims is rising in many countries, …
What is needed for a community of diverse people and groups to maintain its resilience in the face of hateful language, incidents, and provocations? This question is particularly important for universities, which commonly seek to create a climate of welcome and respect for the various groups of students who make them up, and which are …
image: Senator Josh Hawley salutes January 6 insurrection Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have written with growing alarm about the threat to our democracy by right-wing extremism. How Democracies Die was sobering when it appeared in 2017, and the publication of Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point (2023) reaches an …
Ernst Fraenkel's book The Dual State: A Contribution to the Theory of Dictatorship offers instructive and ominous reading today. Written during the rise of Hitler's National-Socialist state by a German Jewish lawyer, it serves as a piece of "ethnographic study of the transformation of the authoritarian state" by a covert participant-observer. Fraenkel published The Dual …
Far-right demonstrators supporting CasaPound (link) How can we understand some of the factors that lead to the development of far-right beliefs and worldview in young people? Why do a certain number of people in their teens and twenties develop a political fascination with neofascism, anti-immigrant extremism, and a range of racist ideas? Is this an …
Stephen Esquith has spent much of his career observing, teaching, and engaging in "conflict societies", and trying to develop an understanding of how best to move from high-violence to low-violence societies. In particular he has spent a great deal of time in Mali in west Africa. He has come to emphasize the importance of "political …
Continue reading "The role of political education in social progress"
If you are concerned about the fate of our democratic institutions, the rise of xenophobia and hate, and the rule of law, please consider following affirmingdemocracy.org -- an ongoing group blog aimed at affirming our democracy and opposing the racism, lawlessness, and authoritarianism we now face. This group blog describes its goals in these terms …
Understanding Society 