Democracy Incorporated Democracy Incorporated Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism heldon olin S S. W PrincetonUniversityPress PrincetonandOxford Copyright©2008byPrincetonUniversityPress PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet, Princeton,NewJersey08540 IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress,6OxfordStreet, Woodstock,OxfordshireOX201TW AllRightsReserved LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Wolin,SheldonS. Democracyincorporated:manageddemocracyandthespecterof invertedtotalitarianism/SheldonS.Wolin. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-691-13566-3(hardcover:alk.paper) 1.Democracy—UnitedStates.2.Corporatestate—UnitedStates. 3.UnitedStates—Politicsandgovernment.4.Politicalscience—History. 5.Politicalscience—Philosophy—History.6.Totalitarianism.7.Fascism.I.Title. JK1726.W662008 320.973—dc22 2007039176 BritishLibraryCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailable ThisbookiscomposedinElectra Printedonacid-freepaper.∞ press.princeton.edu PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 To Carl and Elizabeth Schorske Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xvii preview 1 chapter one MythintheMaking 4 chapter two Totalitarianism’sInversion: BeginningsoftheImaginaryofaPermanentGlobalWar 15 chapter three Totalitarianism’sInversion,Democracy’sPerversion 41 chapter four TheNewWorldofTerror 69 chapter five TheUtopianTheoryofSuperpower: TheOfficialVersion 82 chapter six TheDynamicsofTransformation 95 chapter seven TheDynamicsoftheArchaic 114 chapter eight ThePoliticsofSuperpower: ManagedDemocracy 131 chapter nine IntellectualElitesagainstDemocracy 159 chapter ten DomesticPoliticsintheEraofSuperpowerandEmpire 184 chapter eleven InvertedTotalitarianism: AntecedentsandPrecedents 211 chapter twelve DemoticMoments 238 chapter thirteen Democracy’sProspects: LookingBackwards 259 Notes 293 Index 339 Preface As a preliminary I want to emphasize certain aspects of the approach taken in this volume in order to avoid possible misunderstandings. Al- thoughtheconceptoftotalitarianismiscentraltowhatfollows,mythesis is not that the current American political system is an inspired replica ofNaziGermany’sorGeorgeW.BushofHitler.1ReferencestoHitler’s Germany are introduced to remind the reader of the benchmarks in a system of powerthatwasinvasiveabroad, justified preemptivewarasa matterofofficialdoctrine,andrepressedalloppositionathome—asys- temthatwascruelandracistinprincipleandpractice,deeplyideologi- cal,andopenlybentonworlddomination.Thosebenchmarksareintro- duced to illuminate tendencies in our own system of power that are opposed to the fundamental principles of constitutional democracy. Those tendencies are, I believe, totalizing in the sense that they are obsessedwithcontrol,expansion,superiority,andsupremacy. The regimes of Mussolini and Stalin demonstrate that it is possible fortotalitarianismtoassumedifferentforms.Italianfascism,forexam- ple, did not officially adopt anti-Semitism until late in the regime’s historyandeventhenprimarilyinresponsetopressurefromGermany. Stalinintroducedsome“progressive”policies:promotingmassliteracy and health care; encouraging women to undertake professional and technical careers; and (for a brief spell) promoting minority cultures. Thepointisnotthatthese“accomplishments”compensateforcrimes whosehorrorshaveyettobefullycomprehended.Rather,totalitarian- ismiscapableoflocalvariations;plausibly,farfrombeingexhaustedby itstwentieth-centuryversionswould-betotalitariansnowhaveavailable technologies of control, intimidation and mass manipulation far sur- passingthoseofthatearliertime. TheNaziandFascistregimeswerepoweredbyrevolutionarymove- mentswhoseaimwasnotonlytocapture,reconstitute,andmonopolize state power but also to gain control over the economy. By controlling ix