Sheldon Wolin

Sheldon Sanford Wolin (born August 4, 1922 in Chicago , Illinois ; full name Sheldon Sanford Wolin , † October 21, 2015 in Salem , Oregon ) was an American political scientist with a focus on political theory . He coined for the Political System of the United States in the 21st century the concept of Inverted Totalitarianism (German: Inverted totalitarianism ).

Life

The son of a Russian immigrant grew up in Buffalo . After attending school, he studied at Oberlin College , but left the college in World War II , in which he participated as a bomber and navigator of the United States Army Air Forces in the Pacific War . In 1946 he returned to Oberlin College , where he took his bachelor's degree . He then moved to Harvard University , he participated in the 1950 with a thesis on the British constitutional thought in the late 18th century doctorate . He then taught political science at Oberlin College , the University of California, Berkeley , the University of California, Santa Cruz and University of California, Los Angeles, as well as Cornell University and the University of Oxford . Since 1972 he was a professor at Princeton University , where he retired in 1987 . Wolin was a founding editor of the Journal of Democracy and a regular author of the New York Review of Books . In 1966 Wolin was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

"Inverted Totalitarianism"

Since the publication of the book Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought in 1960, Wolin has had a major impact on the critical left in the United States. His radical, participatory understanding of democracy is particularly evident in his late work, in which he diagnoses and criticizes an increasingly undemocratic political system in the USA. In the age of globalization and growing state power, democracy is only a volatile good (“fugitive democracy”).

2003 Wolin coined in a newspaper article the term Inverted Totalitarianism (German: Inverted totalitarianism ). With the book Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism , he expanded his argumentation on inverted totalitarianism in 2008 and received the Lannan Literary Award in the category of a particularly noteworthy book in the same year . The thesis of this work is that at the end of the 20th century, with the pursuit of superpower and the management of democracy in the USA, a post-democratic government technique emerged that combined elements of liberal democracy with those of totalitarian political systems. Wolin sees a central difference to classical totalitarianism in the fact that National Socialism was a mobilization regime, while inverted totalitarianism relies on a far-reaching depoliticization of the population. In addition, the postmodern form of total domination relies on softer , barely perceptible mechanisms of oppression. A strong leader is also dispensable in this form of government.

Fonts (selection)

• Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought , Princeton University Press, 2004 (original 1960), ISBN 978-0-691-12627-2 .
• with Seymour Martin Lipset : The Berkeley Student Revolt: Facts and Interpretations , Anchor Books, Garden City (New York) 1965.
• Hobbes and the Epic Tradition of Political Theory , William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles 1970.
• The Presence of the Past: Essays on the State and the Constitution , Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0-8018-4116-3 .
• Tocqueville Between Two Worlds: The Making of a Political and Theoretical Life , Princeton University Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0-691-11454-5 .
• Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism , Princeton University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-691-13566-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, information is based on William Grimes, Sheldon S. Wolin, 93, Dies. Political Theorist Saw Limits of Popular Democracy . In The New York Times on October 28, 2015, accessed November 3, 2018.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Michael Hotchkiss: Political theorist Sheldon Wolin dies at 93 , Princeton University , Office of Communications, October 24, 2015, accessed November 3, 2018.
3. ↑ Glenn H. Utter, Charles Lockhart (ed.): American political scientists. A Dictionary . Second edition, Greenwood Press, Westport 2002, p. 442.
4. ↑ Sven Olaf Berggötz, review of: Wolin, Sheldon S .: Toqueville Between Two Worlds. The Making of a Political & Theoretical Life . Princeton 2001, in: H-Soz-Kult, October 17, 2002, online .
5. ↑ Sheldon Wolin, Inverted Totalitarianism. How the Bush regime is effecting the transformation to a fascist-like state , In: The Nation , May 19, 2003, accessed November 4, 2018.
6. ↑ Sheldon Wolin 2008. Lannan Literary Award for Notable Book Awards , accessed November 4, 2018.
7. ↑ Representation after Claudia Ritzi: The post-democratization of the political public: Critique of contemporary democracy - theoretical foundations and analytical perspectives . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2014, p. 85 ff.