Full transcript
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1:14[Applause]
1:20today we will address a fundamental
1:22question that was raised at Key moments
1:25during the legendary debate between the
1:26Federalists and the Anti-Federalists
1:29which is covered in our text in Chapter
1:312 on pages 48 to 53 the question I'm
1:35referring to is one that remains very
1:37much with us to this day namely how best
1:40to respond to the alleged threat to
1:43democracy posed by the demagogue a term
1:47you are perhaps familiar with since of
1:49late the media has made frequent use of
1:52it typical in this regard is the article
1:55you see here from the guardian a liberal
1:58daily
2:00but what is the precise nature of this
2:01role that the 47th president of the US
2:05is said to have
2:06embraced in order to determine that
2:09let's take a fresh look at the demagogue
2:11first by making another short trip to
2:14ancient
2:15Greece there we find that the term's
2:17original meaning is derived from the two
2:19words you see here deos or people and a
2:23gogus or
2:25leader put the two together and we get
2:28the demagogue leader of the
2:31people but we should note here that deos
2:34signifies not simply people but the
2:37Common People the political significance
2:40of that specification is explained for
2:42us by the renowned classicist Josiah
2:46obber Athenians view their society as
2:49divided into two major classes he writes
2:51in a seminal study and the key division
2:55was between those who had to work for
2:56their living known as OS and those those
3:00who did
3:01not we see then that from the get-go the
3:03demagogue was not merely a neutral
3:06descriptive term that is for critics of
3:09democracy like Aristotle the demagogue
3:12is a pejorative word referring as it
3:15does to a leader of a particular class
3:18of individuals that lives as over
3:20stresses in a divided
3:24Society but recall that Athenian
3:26democracy was a form of government in
3:28which the people ruled
3:31that is the citizens of aens took turns
3:34serving on the general Council and
3:36voting directly on proposals in the
3:39assembly that's what made it a direct
3:42democracy so what does it mean for
3:43someone to be identified as a leader of
3:46the people in an asilis government in
3:49which there is no office like the
3:51presidency well although there was no
3:53formal Head of State in Democratic
3:55Athens the people voted annually for a
3:58board of generals and the most famous
4:00General was Pericles described by the
4:04ancient historian fluidities as the
4:06first citizen of Athens Pericles among
4:09other things directed major military
4:11campaigns and for three decades exerted
4:14unrivaled authority over the governing
4:17Council and assembly much of that
4:20success he owed to his gift for oratory
4:23or public
4:24speaking certainly leading Federalists
4:27who were steeped in the classics such as
4:29as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton
4:32also greatly value the art or science of
4:36rhetoric however they thought officials
4:38and a representative democracy ought to
4:40practice the art of rhetoric primarily
4:43amongst themselves when deliberating on
4:46this or that measure in a legislative
4:48chamber held in low esteem were those
4:51political figures who used their
4:53rhetorical skills in order to
4:55communicate directly with the people and
4:58why was that
5:00for two reasons first the Federalists
5:03assumed most citizens were driven Above
5:05All by self-interest and should be
5:07allowed if not actively encouraged to
5:10concern themselves primarily with their
5:12Private Affairs second the federal
5:15thought that on those rare occasions
5:18when Ordinary People do become
5:20politicized and form into groups they
5:22tend to be highly impressionable
5:25intolerant irrational and even violent
5:30and that's because they have been goated
5:32into action by a type of unscrupulous
5:35leader described by Hamilton in the
5:37first of the Federalist Papers as yes a
5:41demagogue to quote Hamilton of those men
5:45who have overturn the liberty of
5:46republics the greatest number have begun
5:49their careers by paying an obsequious
5:52Court to the people commencing
5:54demagogues and ending tyrants the
5:57demagogue pays obsequious Court to the
5:59people which is Hamilton's way of saying
6:02that he tries to win them over through
6:05flattery the demagogue is insincere
6:09deceptive and showers us with praise
6:11because we have something that he wants
6:14namely our vote so apparently we have at
6:18least one way to tell if someone is not
6:21a demagogue I'm sorry but I cannot vote
6:25for a man unless I de him the most
6:26worthy to be Pope and for me that is not
6:30tremble it's
6:32you I don't want your vote
6:36nevertheless you have
6:39it but what all demagogues supposedly
6:41share is a pension for adopting a
6:44particular type of rhetorical strategy
6:46which is moreover used for ignoble
6:50purposes in the words of James fenmore
6:52Cooper best known as the author of The
6:54Last of the Mohicans though he also
6:56wrote several political tracks the
6:58demagogue appeals to passions and
7:01prejudices rather than to reason and is
7:04in all respects a man of intrigue and
7:08deception the demagogue is depicted as
7:11an unprincipled and dangerous leader who
7:14plays upon emotions and relies upon the
7:17dark arts of manipulation rather than
7:19the rigor transparency and logic of
7:22rational argument the tools wielded by
7:25the noble
7:27Statesmen and yet as the passage from
7:29Hamilton shown again here indicates it's
7:32impossible when employing rhetoric
7:34either in a written texts such as the
7:36Federalist Papers or in a public address
7:39to wall off the use of reason from the
7:41use of emotion consider for instance
7:44that an audience May respond emotionally
7:46to an appeal to reason and vice versa
7:50moreover both forms of persuasion are
7:53ripe for
7:54abuse in any case Hamilton's rational
7:57statement certainly comes with a heav
7:59dose of alarmism delivered in order to
8:02induce fear in the
8:05reader for according to Hamilton
8:07allowing a demagogue to have a public
8:09platform puts us on the road to
8:11lawlessness and despotism a fantastic
8:14Journey discussed further in the notes
8:17but if the portraits of the demagogue
8:19that Cooper and Hamilton draw appear
8:21frighteningly lifelike then how should
8:24we ward off such a threat by erecting
8:27institutional barriers and mechanisms
8:30to prevent demagogues from entering the
8:32political
8:33Arena unfortunately doing so also means
8:37placing strict limits on Democracy
8:39something that several States during the
8:40time of the Articles of the
8:42Confederation most notably Pennsylvania
8:45and New Hampshire had elected not to do
8:49for example to the horror of Federalists
8:51like John Adams the Pennsylvania state
8:54constitution abolished the legal
8:56requirement that you had to own property
8:58in order to vote
8:59and created A one- housee legislature
9:02thereby dispensing all together with an
9:05executive branch qu question number one
9:09Identify two Provisions in the state
9:12constitution of
9:14Pennsylvania the perceived need to
9:16prevent the rise of a demagogue by
9:18placing limits on Democracy looms large
9:21when we examine the Federalist
9:23conception of the exemplary Statesman
9:26who is presented as the antithesis of
9:28the demagogue
9:30as Madison saw it Statesmen or political
9:34representatives were entrusted with the
9:36essential task of filtering out refining
9:40correcting and in general elevating the
9:42otherwise narrowly defined or parochial
9:45views of the people this conception of
9:48political representation often referred
9:51to as the trustee model rests upon the
9:54belief that the ability to discern what
9:57lies in a so-called public interest
9:59belongs only to the few not with the
10:03many the political benefits supposedly
10:06provided by trusteeship were described
10:08by James Madison in fal's paper number
10:1010 which is reprinted in our text on
10:13page
10:15631 there we read that the precious
10:17wisdom of Elites enables them to discern
10:20the true interest of their country so
10:23long then as we have such men at the
10:25helm it may well happen Madison writes
10:28that the public voice pronounced by the
10:31representatives of the people will be
10:33more consonant to the public good than
10:35if pronounced by the people themselves
10:38convened for that purpose convened for
10:41instance in a public
10:43assembly for Madison Representatives
10:46ought to act as trustees who know their
10:48constituents true interest better than
10:51their constituents themselves do which
10:54is something we can perhaps imagine
10:56parents saying about their relationship
10:58to their
11:00children here then we see how the
11:02Spectre of the demagogue haunts
11:05Madison's Federalist number 10 for what
11:09do critics of the demagogue claim in an
11:12introduction written to prophets of
11:14Deceit which was published in the US in
11:161949 the philosopher Theodore dorno
11:19wrote demagogy has always been the means
11:22to guide masses of people towards ends
11:25which run counter to their own true
11:28interest
11:31the claim is that even though the
11:32demagogue May secretly know what lies in
11:34the people's true interest he acts
11:37against it to seek his own personal gain
11:40Al the while pretending to give
11:42expression to the popular will we should
11:46not here that in condemning the
11:47demagogue for exploiting the people's
11:50inability to recognize their true
11:52interests critics over the centuries
11:54have evinced precisely the sort of
11:56elitism that demagogues denounce
12:00which in turn enables the demagogue to
12:02go back on the
12:04offensive these attacks and
12:06counterattacks perpetuate a political
12:08cycle in which the respective positions
12:11taken by the demagogue and the critic of
12:13the demagogue mutually reinforce one
12:16another while the people remain as it
12:18were caught in the
12:21middle in an attempt to break or avoid
12:24reaching such an impass those belonging
12:27to the Anti-Federalist camp like lankton
12:29Smith of New York argued that the best
12:32defense against demagogues is to place
12:34one's trust in the people that is
12:37Anti-Federalists like Smith believe that
12:40Representatives should stay as close to
12:42their constituents as possible in order
12:44to accurately reflect their inherently
12:47virtuous needs and preferences a
12:50position associated with the so-called
12:52delegate model of representation quiz
12:55question two how does a delegate model
12:58of representation differ from the
13:00trustee
13:02model now while the Federalists and
13:04Anti-Federalists part ways when it comes
13:06to identifying the best form of
13:07political representation they are in
13:10Broad agreement as to why there is a
13:12need for a representative democracy in
13:14the first place imperfections and
13:17all as stated in the Declaration of
13:19Independence the main task or purpose of
13:22representative democracy should be to
13:24ensure that the government protects the
13:25rights of individuals to advance and
13:27Safeguard their own interests especially
13:30when it comes to acquiring private
13:34property however they also acknowledge
13:37that in carrying out that very task the
13:39government will invariably preserve or
13:42even worsen conditions of social
13:45economic
13:47inequality and that's because as
13:49discussed further in the notes the
13:50Federalists in particular believe that
13:53socioeconomic inequality is a natural
13:56and unavoidable Human Condition about
13:59this Madison is
14:02explicit as he put it in Federalist 10
14:05on page 630 of our text the latent
14:07causes of faction are swn into the
14:09nature of man they are in our DNA as it
14:13were and the most common and durable
14:16source of factions has been the various
14:18and unequal distribution of
14:21property those who hold and those who
14:24are without property have ever formed
14:27distinct interests in society
14:29that's just the way things are as a
14:32result the regulation of these various
14:34and interfering interests forms a
14:37principal task of modern
14:40legislation regulating these interests
14:43also means passing laws that preserve
14:45existing inequalities and make it as
14:48difficult as possible for political
14:50factions or parties to carry out what
14:52Madison refers to in the second to last
14:54paragraph on page 632 as improper and
14:58wicked projects such as those calling
15:01for the equal division of property or
15:03for an abolition of debts and we can
15:06easily imagine that he would add to that
15:08list of odious proposals the closing of
15:11debtor prisons which were not officially
15:14abolished until Congress passed a law to
15:16that effect in
15:181833 though individuals nonetheless
15:20continue to be imprisoned for private
15:22debt for several more decades quiz
15:25question number three Madison considered
15:29any proposal to abolish debt as an
15:31improper and wicked project in your view
15:35is that an accurate characterization of
15:37what the protesters shown here are
15:40calling for briefly
15:43discuss we should note that in the
15:451770s some of the popularly elected
15:48state legislators did indeed enact laws
15:51that were favorable to small farmers
15:53many of whom had fallen deeply into debt
15:55which was one of the factors leading to
15:57Shay's Rebellion
15:59such laws were of course anathema to
16:01wealthy creditors many of whom as our
16:04text points out on page 48 were
16:08Federalists the ranks of the
16:09Anti-Federalists were more diverse in
16:12socioeconomic terms which explains why
16:14they favored legislation that provided
16:16forms of debt relief strengthened local
16:19communities and preserved rural
16:22Traditions crucially they also argued
16:25that socioeconomic inequalities should
16:27at least be minimized
16:30and with that last point we found what
16:32lies at the heart of the debate over
16:36demagoguery that is Federalists and
16:38Anti-Federalists alike attempted to
16:40establish a form of government in which
16:42economic inequality and representative
16:45democracy would more or less peacefully
16:50coexist and why can that be so difficult
16:52to pull
16:53off we'll return to this question in the
16:55notes but for now we can point to the
16:58fact then in a representative democracy
17:00based upon the principle of majority
17:02rule the door stands open for citizens
17:05who live in a state of financial
17:07precarity to emerge as a potent
17:10electoral
17:12Force such in fact is the political
17:14situation today when over 60% of
17:17Americans live paycheck to
17:20paycheck now while demagogues who
17:23cynically appeal to the less well-off in
17:25order to advance an agenda that supports
17:27the status quo have certainly existed
17:30throughout US History it's also the case
17:33that Elites have for centuries called
17:35out as a demagogue any political figure
17:38who even so much as mentions the
17:41existence of class or
17:44inequality and such denunciations of
17:47demagogues can be self-incriminating as
17:50we can see by opening this issue of Life
17:53magazine which was published in April of
17:571967 short shortly after Martin Luther
17:59King Jr delivered his famous Riverside
18:02Church speech in New York
18:05City inside that issue of life we find
18:08an editorial that condemns King for
18:11embracing the role of
18:14demagogue that particular editorial
18:17belongs to a long-standing tradition
18:20which is upheld by issuing dogmatic
18:22emotion Laden warnings about demagogues
18:25who allegedly threatened the very
18:27existence of the nation but it may be
18:30the case that what they threaten is the
18:33existing power structure of the nation
18:36the need to guard against that
18:37particular threat is one Madison appears
18:40to recognize in Federalist 10 to which
18:43we will turn again in the supplemental
18:46notes with question number four based on
18:50today's lecture do you think the concept
18:52of the demagogue can be a useful tool
18:55when analyzing American politics today
18:58brief
18:59discuss