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Samuel Bagg

@samuel-bagg.bsky.social

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Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of South Carolina. Democratic Theory. The Dispersion of Power, in press with OUP, expected release January 2024

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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Unfortunately, the hardcover edition is still wildly expensive, but hopefully the strong e-book sales will demonstrate to OUP that it's worth printing an affordable paperback edition as well.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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Exciting news: for a limited time, the e-book edition of The Dispersion of Power is available for only $9! It's already cracked Amazon's top 100 "Political History" e-books (right between Rachel Maddow and Nancy Fraser). Hop on the bandwagon and get your copy now!

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Svenja Ahlhaus's avatar Svenja Ahlhaus @svenjaahlhaus.bsky.social
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Today we start reading and discussing @samuel-bagg.bsky.social fabulous new book "The Dispersion of Power" in my seminar on Contemporary Democratic Theory. We are looking forward to the "Author Meets Students" with Sam in Münster next month!

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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A much better way to say what I was trying to say! Thanks.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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That is not what plaintiffs in current SCOTUS cases hope to achieve. And it is unlikely to emerge from the rulings the Court will issue in coming months. It is, however, a goal worth fighting for—even, or especially, if the Court decides to cause a crisis in the federal bureaucracy.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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In practice, this might look like “citizen oversight juries” I’ve defended before. But that’s hardly the only model. The key point is that bureaucrats must retain substantial independence and discretion, while also facing public scrutiny that will incentivize them to act in the public interest.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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Drawing on my book and related work, I argue in this short piece that the best way to address real democratic deficits in the bureaucracy is by subjecting important agency decisions to transparent contestation on egalitarian terms, as well as impartial oversight by ordinary people.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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Unfortunately, the “remedies” being considered by the Supreme Court are far worse than the disease. Instead of making it impossible for bureaucrats to do their jobs, we should subject their decisions to greater public scrutiny, in order to ensure that they actually serve the public interest.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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From the perspective of democratic theory, though, the challengers have a point. Right-wingers are hardly the only ones to think bureaucrats should be more accountable to the public. Overreach and special interest capture are real problems, and they deserve serious solutions.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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The cases are inspired by a reactionary legal movement that aims to undermine govt power by any means. And depending how the Court rules, it could sharply limit the ability of federal agencies to, e.g., regulate pollution, prosecute financial fraud, and deliver social services.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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Thanks to @us.theconversation.com for running my piece about democratizing the bureaucracy! It’s a topical subject thanks to 3 Supreme Court cases that challenge the legitimacy of bureaucratic decision-making. And it highlights some practical implications of my arguments in the book.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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So grateful for the incredibly generous comments from Anna Jurkevics, Mark Warren, Alex Kirshner, and @afsounafsahi.bsky.social about my book at an Author-Meets-Critics session at WPSA yesterday. And to Temi Ogunye for chairing and snapping a photo!

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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Thanks to @ispsyale.bsky.social for inviting me to speak about democracy. I'm excited to spend the next couple of weeks in New Haven as a visiting scholar: if you're in the neighborhood, reach out!

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Reposted by Samuel Bagg

Jessica Schoenherr's avatar Jessica Schoenherr @jessicaann87.bsky.social
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Now that it's official... Jonathan King (WVU) and I are beyond excited to announce that we received a National Science Foundation grant to study judicial collegiality! Want to know more? Scope out the thread below!

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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Book (pre-)release event last night was a great success! Thanks to USC Humanities and All Good Books for hosting, and to the crowd packing the room!

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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Honored that The Dispersion of Power was included by my favorite blog on their list of the most anticipated books of 2024!

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Reposted by Samuel Bagg

Reposted by Samuel Bagg

Jan-Werner Mueller's avatar Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
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There have been many strangely abstract appeals for "realism."  Sam's book demonstrates concretely how to be a realist, while maintaining democratic hope. In an account both subtle and bracing, he focuses on the dangers of concentrated private power and shows how to organize countervailing powers.

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Reposted by Samuel Bagg

Shai Agmon's avatar Shai Agmon @shaiagmon.bsky.social
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I can say with confidence that this will be (and actually, already is) an incredibly significant contribution to democratic theory. An amazing book!

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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That is the core lesson of my book. And it's where my own work is headed next!

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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Rather than pursuing the mirage of collective decision-making on perfectly equal terms, those of us aiming to protect & enrich democracy must ask how ordinary people with relatively few resources can effectively organize themselves to contest pervasive capture by powerful elites.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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Of course, building this sort of countervailing power is no easy feat. The book does discuss some inspiring examples, but that is only the beginning of a much larger project. If my argument in the book is right, though, that project should be central to democratic theory.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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The hegemonic groups who reliably capture state power are able to do so because of their superior organizational capacity. To build countervailing power is simply to ensure their opponents have a fighting chance -- thus making it harder for them to get their way every time.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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Finally, the most crucial democratic priority of all is neither a procedural reform nor a substantive policy, but the practice of building countervailing power -- outside of the state -- through orgs like unions, movements, and parties. (see onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... for more).

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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Second, our democratic demands must extend far beyond the procedural realm. In particular, substantive policies to limit the concentration of wealth and power in a few oligarchic hands should be understood as central to sustaining democracy (see journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... for more)

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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On the contrary, we must assume that powerful elites will aim to co-opt whatever institutions we create, and design them with the explicit purpose of minimizing that threat -- while acknowledging that most of the time, we will fail. (see lpeproject.org/blog/two-fal... for more).

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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This means a few things. First, democratic reformers are right to demand procedural changes enabling more direct popular input into policymaking and implementation. But in doing so, we cannot trust our intuitive sense that more participation is presumptively more democratic.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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So when we talk about the challenges facing democracy, that is the fundamental problem, which any plausible solution must address. If we want a more egalitarian political order, we can't just change the procedures: we need to shift the underlying balance of power.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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No matter what procedures a society uses to make decisions, the outcomes will reliably reflect the relative power of groups within it. And in all democratic societies today, that balance is extremely skewed -- favoring wealthy elites and various other powerful groups.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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Sometimes, these things really can help. Yet they often do very little, and at times can even make things worse. This is because they target the symptoms of democracy's ailments while ignoring the root cause: ie, pervasive power asymmetries that advantage some groups over others.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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To explain democracy's woes, different versions of the ideal may point to the structure of elections, or the lack of direct popular input, or the unreflective nature of that input -- suggesting solutions like electoral reform, or participatory governance, or renewed deliberation.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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Even more importantly, the ideal of collective decision-making on equal terms doesn't tell us how to make democracy better. Or rather, when it does, it leads us to focus on the wrong things -- namely, the procedures through which we form and express our collective will.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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My book challenges the value of this commonsense ideal. For one, real democracies don't come anywhere close to it -- and they probably never could. So the ideal doesn't explain why basic electoral democracy matters; why it deserves a vigorous defense despite its many flaws.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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The way we usually see it, democracy is about collective decision-making on equal terms. It is a way for people to come together, discuss their options, and make choices about the direction of their society that are both well-informed and fair to everyone involved.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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I wrote it because I couldn't shake the feeling that there is something wrong with the way we think and talk about democracy -- and that this is inhibiting our ability to protect it.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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What's the book about, you ask? The short answer is democracy: what it is, why it matters, and how to make it better.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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Still, my dream is for as many of you as possible to have the sort of experience with my book that I had with the books that shaped me as I was writing it: curled up with a hard copy, pencil in hand, underlining the bits you like and writing angry margin notes about the rest.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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Most people with an institutional affiliation will have access through OUP's online system soon. And for those who don't, the e-book edition will be steeply discounted for the first few months of 2024 -- watch this space for updates, or DM me for other access options.

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Samuel Bagg's avatar Samuel Bagg @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
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It's finally happening. My book has a webpage! And a release date! You can pre-order it! You probably shouldn't, given the price, but if you have a library (or rich uncle), tell them to buy it for you: tinyurl.com/Bagg-OUP-UK in UK (Jan 4) or tinyurl.com/Bagg-OUP-US in US (Mar 4)

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Joe Byer's avatar Joe Byer @joebyer.bsky.social
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It is time. To the ramparts, comrades.

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