Legitimizing Authority places the American state apparatus back in the foreground to rethink the development of the country’s government in the context of its unfulfilled promise of equality.
The book argues that the tensions between calls for equality and the simultaneous tolerance of inequality have accompanied the rise of modern mass society and, with it, of liberal democracy. Vormann and Lammert emphasize that government has played and continues to play a decisive role in calibrating the relationship between the interior and the exterior of the nation, moving between an extractive state, a taxation state, and a welfare state over time in order to expand social access and political participation inside the national community – while tolerating conditions that continue to belie the historical promise of equality. The authors draw on a range of literatures that transcend disciplinary boundaries to reveal how exploitative practices have been accepted. They conclude that the democratic crises of the present must be comprehended through understanding how legitimation was always maintained by a state apparatus active at multiple scales and in multiple policy fields.
This interdisciplinary book is addressed to a broad audience across disciplines, including political science, political economy, political history, comparative politics, international politics, international relations, American Political Development (APD), and cultural studies.
Boris Vormann is a Professor of Politics and Director of the Politics Section at Bard College Berlin. His recent books include The Emergence of Illiberalism (2021, coedited with Michael Weinman) and Democracy in Crisis: The Neoliberal Roots of Popular Unrest (with Christian Lammert, 2019). His current project examines the role of the state in building the logistical infrastructures of expanding global trade networks.
Christian Lammert is a Professor of Political Science with a focus on Political Systems in North America, John F. Kennedy Institute, FU Berlin. He has published widely on inequality, healthcare policy, and comparative welfare state research. A handbook on American politics (Handbuch Politik USA, coedited with Markus B. Siewert and Boris Vormann) is forthcoming in its third edition.
Susan H. Gillespie is an international educator and professional translator from German to English. She is the Bard College Fellow in Translation and Translatability and Founding Director of the Institute for International Liberal Education at Bard. Her published translations include philosophy, musicology, fiction, politics, and poetry. She is a member of the Board of Advisors and former Vice Chairman of Words Without Borders, and Second Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of Bard College Berlin.
