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
It is way too easy for these events to happen. It’s terrifying.
September 11, 2025 at 1:47 AM
It is way too easy for these events to happen. It’s terrifying.
To revisit the political theory ‘canon’ after immersing oneself in scholarship in history (esp. economic history), comparative politics, sociology, archaeology, and other fields is to see *everything* with new eyes.
August 11, 2025 at 3:31 PM
To revisit the political theory ‘canon’ after immersing oneself in scholarship in history (esp. economic history), comparative politics, sociology, archaeology, and other fields is to see *everything* with new eyes.
Reposted by Doug Thompson
Greek & Roman historian here. Fact check: true. Ancient Mediterranean historians worth our salt don’t just read about Greeks and Romans.
August 11, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Greek & Roman historian here. Fact check: true. Ancient Mediterranean historians worth our salt don’t just read about Greeks and Romans.
Thank goodness for that! One thing I really should have mentioned is that much of the excellent work that people in my field have done in recent years to expand our geographic horizons has been heavily dependent on scholarship in other fields that began this work much earlier.
August 11, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Thank goodness for that! One thing I really should have mentioned is that much of the excellent work that people in my field have done in recent years to expand our geographic horizons has been heavily dependent on scholarship in other fields that began this work much earlier.
One person's rule of law is another person's lawfare. Impossible to adjudicate between these perceptions. Damn all these radical postmodernists and their post-truth moral relativism!
August 11, 2025 at 1:55 PM
One person's rule of law is another person's lawfare. Impossible to adjudicate between these perceptions. Damn all these radical postmodernists and their post-truth moral relativism!
Once you see it, you can't unsee it.
August 11, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Once you see it, you can't unsee it.
... until we bring in data from other regions of Afro-Eurasia that were in close trade contact with W. Europe and then compare and draw connections between them to test whether W. Europe really was the sole origin of every aspect of the concept.
Spoiler alert: it wasn't (paper in process...) (fin)
Spoiler alert: it wasn't (paper in process...) (fin)
August 11, 2025 at 1:48 PM
... until we bring in data from other regions of Afro-Eurasia that were in close trade contact with W. Europe and then compare and draw connections between them to test whether W. Europe really was the sole origin of every aspect of the concept.
Spoiler alert: it wasn't (paper in process...) (fin)
Spoiler alert: it wasn't (paper in process...) (fin)
An example: every political theorist *knows* that the origins of "the modern state" lie in Europe. But how can we *know* this if we *only* look for those origins in Europe? The answer is, of course, that we cannot actually know this in that way. This remains an untested hypothesis in the field...
August 11, 2025 at 1:45 PM
An example: every political theorist *knows* that the origins of "the modern state" lie in Europe. But how can we *know* this if we *only* look for those origins in Europe? The answer is, of course, that we cannot actually know this in that way. This remains an untested hypothesis in the field...
Simply reading non-European sources is not enough. We also have to understand how ideas from different regions relate to each other and fit together--through cross-regional *comparison* and by reconstructing direct lines of interregional *connection* in the form of past learning across distance...
August 11, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Simply reading non-European sources is not enough. We also have to understand how ideas from different regions relate to each other and fit together--through cross-regional *comparison* and by reconstructing direct lines of interregional *connection* in the form of past learning across distance...
... even if these data are wildly unrepresentative of the phenomena under investigation. Which in my field they very often were.
Trying to overcome the deeply distorted picture of the history of political thought that this arbitrary sample enabled is *incredibly* difficult...
Trying to overcome the deeply distorted picture of the history of political thought that this arbitrary sample enabled is *incredibly* difficult...
August 11, 2025 at 1:37 PM
... even if these data are wildly unrepresentative of the phenomena under investigation. Which in my field they very often were.
Trying to overcome the deeply distorted picture of the history of political thought that this arbitrary sample enabled is *incredibly* difficult...
Trying to overcome the deeply distorted picture of the history of political thought that this arbitrary sample enabled is *incredibly* difficult...
This was a *tiny*, wholly arbitrary sample of globally available texts, a result of pure custom and professional path dependence.
The field was a walking embodiment of the ‘streetlight effect’—a form of observational bias where the researcher only considers data that are ready to hand…
The field was a walking embodiment of the ‘streetlight effect’—a form of observational bias where the researcher only considers data that are ready to hand…
August 11, 2025 at 1:28 PM
This was a *tiny*, wholly arbitrary sample of globally available texts, a result of pure custom and professional path dependence.
The field was a walking embodiment of the ‘streetlight effect’—a form of observational bias where the researcher only considers data that are ready to hand…
The field was a walking embodiment of the ‘streetlight effect’—a form of observational bias where the researcher only considers data that are ready to hand…
… (2) late republican/early imperial Rome (again, about a century); (3) a handful of societies that developed in the wake of the Western Empire’s collapse (almost all a millennium later, after 1500 CE); and (4) the modern settler colonial societies of North America (not S. America, Oceania, Africa)…
August 11, 2025 at 1:23 PM
… (2) late republican/early imperial Rome (again, about a century); (3) a handful of societies that developed in the wake of the Western Empire’s collapse (almost all a millennium later, after 1500 CE); and (4) the modern settler colonial societies of North America (not S. America, Oceania, Africa)…
That book made me realize that if southern Democrats and anti-New Deal (esp. midwestern industrialist) Republicans were in the same party in 1932, the US would have probably gone fascist. By 1994, their heirs had sorted into the same party, and presto!
In other words, we all need to read this book…
In other words, we all need to read this book…
July 18, 2025 at 10:05 PM
That book made me realize that if southern Democrats and anti-New Deal (esp. midwestern industrialist) Republicans were in the same party in 1932, the US would have probably gone fascist. By 1994, their heirs had sorted into the same party, and presto!
In other words, we all need to read this book…
In other words, we all need to read this book…
It's the only way, and Dem leaders can't give up on it, despite the murky future. How they'll respond to the imminent (b/c newly funded) expansion of coercion & detention is another variable...
July 3, 2025 at 10:15 PM
It's the only way, and Dem leaders can't give up on it, despite the murky future. How they'll respond to the imminent (b/c newly funded) expansion of coercion & detention is another variable...
Plus the media environment. Will rural GOP voters assign blame accurately for lost healthcare and recession caused by tariffs, immigration labor shock, & public sector cuts? That seems to be to be the biggest obstacle.
July 3, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Plus the media environment. Will rural GOP voters assign blame accurately for lost healthcare and recession caused by tariffs, immigration labor shock, & public sector cuts? That seems to be to be the biggest obstacle.
I agree, but It's so hard to see the path forward to building the required supermajority under current conditions.
Those constitutional moments are so contingent (on economic collapse, total wars, etc.). 2025 lacks the wrecked opposition of 1865 & 1932 & the internal party splits on "race" of 1965.
Those constitutional moments are so contingent (on economic collapse, total wars, etc.). 2025 lacks the wrecked opposition of 1865 & 1932 & the internal party splits on "race" of 1965.
July 3, 2025 at 10:00 PM
I agree, but It's so hard to see the path forward to building the required supermajority under current conditions.
Those constitutional moments are so contingent (on economic collapse, total wars, etc.). 2025 lacks the wrecked opposition of 1865 & 1932 & the internal party splits on "race" of 1965.
Those constitutional moments are so contingent (on economic collapse, total wars, etc.). 2025 lacks the wrecked opposition of 1865 & 1932 & the internal party splits on "race" of 1965.
I want to be reassured, but I am not optimistic. The anti-democratization "Jim Crow refounding" took almost a century to reverse. And then the backlash against it (via partisan resorting of voters by attitudes on "race") produced the current moment. What is the path back to democracy? (fin)
July 3, 2025 at 9:54 PM
I want to be reassured, but I am not optimistic. The anti-democratization "Jim Crow refounding" took almost a century to reverse. And then the backlash against it (via partisan resorting of voters by attitudes on "race") produced the current moment. What is the path back to democracy? (fin)
So where's the pro-democratization supermajority going to come from? It's really not clear right now.
The BBB perversely attacks the well-being of its sponsors' voters. But there is no indication that those voters will assign blame accurately and switch parties in this media environment. (11/)
The BBB perversely attacks the well-being of its sponsors' voters. But there is no indication that those voters will assign blame accurately and switch parties in this media environment. (11/)
July 3, 2025 at 9:49 PM
So where's the pro-democratization supermajority going to come from? It's really not clear right now.
The BBB perversely attacks the well-being of its sponsors' voters. But there is no indication that those voters will assign blame accurately and switch parties in this media environment. (11/)
The BBB perversely attacks the well-being of its sponsors' voters. But there is no indication that those voters will assign blame accurately and switch parties in this media environment. (11/)
So, here we (very much already) are, in the 5th refounding--not one of the democratizing ones. The problem is that we're not in 1865, 1932, or 1965. The anti-democratization party is not shut out of US politics like 1865 or 1932. And both parties aren't internally split on "race" like 1965. (10/)
July 3, 2025 at 9:46 PM
So, here we (very much already) are, in the 5th refounding--not one of the democratizing ones. The problem is that we're not in 1865, 1932, or 1965. The anti-democratization party is not shut out of US politics like 1865 or 1932. And both parties aren't internally split on "race" like 1965. (10/)
BUT, it shares features with the violent insurgency against the 1st Reconstruction. Today we have 1 party focused on reversing past democratization events (much like the 1870s-1890s). And the other party (so far) isn't willing or able to defend democracy (with many individual exceptions). (9/)
July 3, 2025 at 9:43 PM
BUT, it shares features with the violent insurgency against the 1st Reconstruction. Today we have 1 party focused on reversing past democratization events (much like the 1870s-1890s). And the other party (so far) isn't willing or able to defend democracy (with many individual exceptions). (9/)
There were enough *pro-Civil Rights* leaders in both parties to make a majority.
Well ... that ship has sailed. The 5th "refounding" is undoing all of the previous 3 democratizing "refoundings." It can't be a return to "Jim Crow + laissez faire," à la 1900. It's something new. (8/)
Well ... that ship has sailed. The 5th "refounding" is undoing all of the previous 3 democratizing "refoundings." It can't be a return to "Jim Crow + laissez faire," à la 1900. It's something new. (8/)
July 3, 2025 at 9:39 PM
There were enough *pro-Civil Rights* leaders in both parties to make a majority.
Well ... that ship has sailed. The 5th "refounding" is undoing all of the previous 3 democratizing "refoundings." It can't be a return to "Jim Crow + laissez faire," à la 1900. It's something new. (8/)
Well ... that ship has sailed. The 5th "refounding" is undoing all of the previous 3 democratizing "refoundings." It can't be a return to "Jim Crow + laissez faire," à la 1900. It's something new. (8/)
The 2nd Reconstruction was different. It was obviously a democratization event (the end of Jim Crow authoritarianism plus an expansion of what we could vote for, e.g., health care in Medicare & Medicaid!).
But it was only possible because both parties were internally split about "race." (7/)
But it was only possible because both parties were internally split about "race." (7/)
July 3, 2025 at 9:36 PM
The 2nd Reconstruction was different. It was obviously a democratization event (the end of Jim Crow authoritarianism plus an expansion of what we could vote for, e.g., health care in Medicare & Medicaid!).
But it was only possible because both parties were internally split about "race." (7/)
But it was only possible because both parties were internally split about "race." (7/)