Doug Thompson
@dithomps.bsky.social
Political theorist. Rewriting the global history of political thought from the perspective of bureaucrats, 3000 BCE to the present.
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/douglas-i-thompson/home
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/douglas-i-thompson/home
Thank you! By the way, your excellent book (duly cited!) helped me with another article from the more recent (APD) end of this project. I was just talking about it at an admin law conference over the weekend.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
June 19, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Thank you! By the way, your excellent book (duly cited!) helped me with another article from the more recent (APD) end of this project. I was just talking about it at an admin law conference over the weekend.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Delighted to see my article, "The Bureaucratic Origins of Political Theory," in print in @poppublicsphere.bsky.social. It is my favorite thing I've written, and I hope you'll read it.
Like most people, I learned in school that political theory began in Athens in the 5th c. BCE. This is wrong. (1/)
Like most people, I learned in school that political theory began in Athens in the 5th c. BCE. This is wrong. (1/)
June 19, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Delighted to see my article, "The Bureaucratic Origins of Political Theory," in print in @poppublicsphere.bsky.social. It is my favorite thing I've written, and I hope you'll read it.
Like most people, I learned in school that political theory began in Athens in the 5th c. BCE. This is wrong. (1/)
Like most people, I learned in school that political theory began in Athens in the 5th c. BCE. This is wrong. (1/)
Grading interrupted again by a friendly anole.
May 6, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Grading interrupted again by a friendly anole.
How am I supposed to finish grading with this beautiful visitor on my laptop?
May 5, 2025 at 9:28 PM
How am I supposed to finish grading with this beautiful visitor on my laptop?
A story in three parts about summer 2025, which will live in infamy…
April 29, 2025 at 2:34 AM
A story in three parts about summer 2025, which will live in infamy…
Habits of democracy are longer (1965 v 1990s) and expectations of middle class stability as a birthright are much stronger in the US. As these expectations crumble (it’s starting), I expect violent repression to make up the difference.
March 21, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Habits of democracy are longer (1965 v 1990s) and expectations of middle class stability as a birthright are much stronger in the US. As these expectations crumble (it’s starting), I expect violent repression to make up the difference.
Think of all the empty slogans about "the taxes are too high" and "government spending is out of control." Most students NEVER get exposed to actual information about these things.
February 27, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Think of all the empty slogans about "the taxes are too high" and "government spending is out of control." Most students NEVER get exposed to actual information about these things.
In retrospect, US education and media systems should have treated it as an emergency that millions of Americans had, for decades, become dissociated from the material reality that they really like what modern governments do. Will this break the dissociation? Is it too late?
February 27, 2025 at 3:55 PM
In retrospect, US education and media systems should have treated it as an emergency that millions of Americans had, for decades, become dissociated from the material reality that they really like what modern governments do. Will this break the dissociation? Is it too late?
one in the storm drain outside my son’s college dorm this week…
February 15, 2025 at 9:40 PM
one in the storm drain outside my son’s college dorm this week…
6. And Winters’ book gives a rich conceptual vocabulary for explaining what’s happening. Musk is clearly trying to transition the US from an already “elite-biased democracy” (@mikealbertus.bsky.social and Menaldo’s term) into a “sultanistic oligarchy.”
February 6, 2025 at 6:32 PM
6. And Winters’ book gives a rich conceptual vocabulary for explaining what’s happening. Musk is clearly trying to transition the US from an already “elite-biased democracy” (@mikealbertus.bsky.social and Menaldo’s term) into a “sultanistic oligarchy.”
4. Bagg makes a compelling case that centralized public administrative power is good for democracy b/c it enables effective prevention and opposition to the accumulation of private oligarchic power. Why is centralized public administrative capacity necessary for this?
February 6, 2025 at 6:31 PM
4. Bagg makes a compelling case that centralized public administrative power is good for democracy b/c it enables effective prevention and opposition to the accumulation of private oligarchic power. Why is centralized public administrative capacity necessary for this?
2. From Ziblatt: weak conservative parties (i.e. 21st c. GOP) can tempt organized wealthy interest groups to turn instead to extra-party organizations (religious, nationalistic, etc.) to GOTV in support of their unpopular economic preferences. These groups can then take over the party.
February 6, 2025 at 6:31 PM
2. From Ziblatt: weak conservative parties (i.e. 21st c. GOP) can tempt organized wealthy interest groups to turn instead to extra-party organizations (religious, nationalistic, etc.) to GOTV in support of their unpopular economic preferences. These groups can then take over the party.
10. In fact, bureaucracy has been a fundamental institutional building block of human civilization from the very beginning in ancient Mesopotamia—compatible with forms democracy for over 5,000 yrs.
bsky.app/profile/dith...
bsky.app/profile/dith...
January 30, 2025 at 6:14 PM
10. In fact, bureaucracy has been a fundamental institutional building block of human civilization from the very beginning in ancient Mesopotamia—compatible with forms democracy for over 5,000 yrs.
bsky.app/profile/dith...
bsky.app/profile/dith...
9. And in my own research, I show that the “administrative state” is as American as apple pie. Bureaucracy has been part of democracy in America from the very beginning. doi.org/10.1177/0090...
January 30, 2025 at 6:07 PM
9. And in my own research, I show that the “administrative state” is as American as apple pie. Bureaucracy has been part of democracy in America from the very beginning. doi.org/10.1177/0090...
8. Bernardo Zacka argues that bureaucratic agencies can deliver morally significant policy implementation and care. www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...
January 30, 2025 at 5:57 PM
8. Bernardo Zacka argues that bureaucratic agencies can deliver morally significant policy implementation and care. www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...
7. … and so does Lisa Disch. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
January 30, 2025 at 5:52 PM
7. … and so does Lisa Disch. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
6. @stevenklein.bsky.social makes a similar argument about bureaucracy and democratic political mobilization from a different angle. www.cambridge.org/core/books/w...
January 30, 2025 at 5:50 PM
6. @stevenklein.bsky.social makes a similar argument about bureaucracy and democratic political mobilization from a different angle. www.cambridge.org/core/books/w...
5. And @katejackson.bsky.social, argues that public bureaucracies perform important functions of political representation, enabling constituencies to participate actively in democratic politics. scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcont...
January 30, 2025 at 5:45 PM
5. And @katejackson.bsky.social, argues that public bureaucracies perform important functions of political representation, enabling constituencies to participate actively in democratic politics. scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcont...
3. And @samuel-bagg.bsky.social argues that public administrative power is necessary as a countervailing force against private concentrations of oligarchic power. global.oup.com/academic/pro...
January 30, 2025 at 5:33 PM
3. And @samuel-bagg.bsky.social argues that public administrative power is necessary as a countervailing force against private concentrations of oligarchic power. global.oup.com/academic/pro...
2. For example, @blakeprof.bsky.social argues that bureaucracy transforms rights and freedoms from
mere words on paper into a material reality.
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
mere words on paper into a material reality.
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
January 30, 2025 at 5:26 PM
2. For example, @blakeprof.bsky.social argues that bureaucracy transforms rights and freedoms from
mere words on paper into a material reality.
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
mere words on paper into a material reality.
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
If you’re worried about oligarchic state capture (as well you should be), and you want to know more about countervailing power that can fight it, then read my colleague @samuel-bagg.bsky.social’s excellent recent book about it: The Dispersion of Power.
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
January 27, 2025 at 4:12 PM
If you’re worried about oligarchic state capture (as well you should be), and you want to know more about countervailing power that can fight it, then read my colleague @samuel-bagg.bsky.social’s excellent recent book about it: The Dispersion of Power.
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com/academic/pro...