This will be a series of blog posts that I am writing to assist me in the work of developing my understanding of civics and citizenship education. Basically, I want to engage in a critical analysis, as it pertains to my interest in civics and citizenship education, of some of the key scholars in a range of different fields. I will be aiming to describe their arguments, the relevance of those arguments to my work, and any differing points of view related to the work in question.
This section is on John Keane’s The New Despotism.
I’m familiar with some of John Keane’s work, especially his history of democracy. I found it particularly helpful as I began to engage with notions of civics and citizenship education and its place in democracy and history. So, it was with some enthusiasm that I sought out his latest publication, The New Despotism.In this book, Keane takes aim at what he calls the new despotism, and he does not miss. He suggests that democracy itself, and especially its presence as a modern form of government in Western countries, is at risk. He calls this an existential crisis of liberal democracy – and suggests that democracy is on resolution row. The democratic dream, as personified through America, is fading, brought on by economic stagnation, increasing inequality and immigration.
It is white working class voters that are leading this charge – they feel culturally displaced, and economically threatened -but these feelings are present in the increasingly hollowed out middle class. This dynamic has fed support for a new wave of populism – and conversely, illiberal is. Of course, such trends may be most obvious in the US (although I would suggest that there are elements present in Australia, too) but no government or democracy across the world is free. Keane argues that we are seeing increasing double standards in international relations, and at home. He calls this the emergence of the precariat, as democracies become less open, the public service becomes battered and cut, increased surveillance, militarised policing, rising incarceration and clampdowns on public assembly.
How did this come to be? Keane presents the notion of new form of Despotism. He writes:
“The world is gradually being shaped by self-confidently alternative methods of governing people – methods that defy existing politics and government textbooks and represent a fundamental challenge to power-sharing democracy as we have known and experienced it during recent decades” (p. 11)
This new form of despotism is carefully and quietly snuffing the life out of democracies – both in western countries and overseas. Not just through social disorder, economic breakdown, political conspiracy, and military violence – but these new 21st century forms of power. Keane calls this a new form of pseudo government, led by rulers skilled in the arts of manipulating and meddling with people’s lives. They skilfully manipulate and meddle with people’s lives, marshal their support and win their conformity. They do this, in part, through developing networks and implicating everyone through dependencies based on money, wealth and manipulations of the media. This is not a synonym for repression or brute force, nor is it an exercise or new form of tyranny. Instead, it is much smarter than that. Keane sums it up as:
“Their passion is power for the sake of power, exercised arbitrarily over others. It is relentless, ruthless, but not reckless.” (P. 13)