Neoliberal and authoritarian updates on U.S. white democracy

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay synthesizes critical contract theory and radical democratic theory to contest U.S. authoritarianism and U.S. neoliberalism. Theoretically, I argue that radical democratic theory needs critical contract theory to expose the gendered and raced infrastructure of U.S. liberal democracy, while critical contract theory needs radical democratic theory to reframe race and gender dominance in terms of popular struggle. Historically, I argue that U.S. “fraternal whiteness” or “white democracy” is a deep inegalitarian infrastructure of U.S. liberal democracy. The implication is that recent U.S. turns toward neoliberalism and authoritarianism are more updates on white democracy than departures from liberal democracy. In this theoretical and historical context, I argue that effective left strategies – socialist and other anti-capitalist ones not excepted – must work from the premise that fraternal whiteness coheres the U.S. neoliberal-U.S. authoritarian alliance. I conclude with suggestions on how the U.S. left could use gendered and raced “wedges” to split the U.S. authoritarian neoliberal bloc.