We provide a counterpoint to recent political developments, including the storming of the US Capitol, using novel evidence on 95,314 extreme right-wing supporters and Nazi collaborators in France, which experienced intense polarization in the 1930s and 1940s. We show how democratic values can be undermined by exogenous networks of influential individuals, including heroes. Heroes are specially positioned to widen the `Overton Window’ and legitimize views previously considered deeply repugnant. Social networks of individuals sharing such an identity can transmit and reinforce this influence, leading to escalating commitments that entrench political positions and make debiasing more difficult. However, heroes can also use their legitimacy to strengthen democracy. A link to our Vox Column is here, and to the working paper is here. 

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Saumitra Jha is an associate professor of political economy at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, a senior fellow at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Affairs and convenes the Stanford Conflict and Polarization Lab.

Saum’s  research focuses upon understanding the effectiveness of organizations and innovations that societies have developed to address the problems of violence and other political risks, and to seek new lessons for fostering peace and development. His research has been published in leading journals in economics and political science, including Econometrica, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the American Political Science Review and the Journal of Development Economics, and he serves on a number of editorial boards. His research on ethnic tolerance has been recognized with the Michael Wallerstein Award for best published article in political economy from the American Political Science Association and his co-authored research on heroes was awarded the Oliver Williamson Award for best paper by the Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics in 2020. In 2020, Jha was also honored to receive the Teacher of the Year Award, voted by the students of the Stanford GSB Sloan Fellows Program.

For more information, please visit his website: https://saumitra.people.stanford.edu/

Co-sponsored by the Global Populisms Project.

ABSTRACT 

This talk is based on the speakers’ recently published edited volume The Unfinished Arab Spring: Micro-Dynamics of Revolts between Change and Continuity. Adopting an original analytical approach in explaining various dynamics at work behind the Arab revolts and giving voice to local dynamics and legacies rather than concentrating on debates about paradigms, we highlight micro-perspectives of change and resistance as well as of contentious politics that are often marginalized and left unexplored in favor of macro-analyses. First, we re-examine the stories of the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Morocco and Algeria through diverse and novel perspectives, looking at factors that have not yet been sufficiently underlined but carry explanatory power for what has occurred. Second, rather than focusing on macro-comparative regional trends – however useful they might be – we focus on the particularities of each country, highlighting distinctive micro-dynamics of change and continuity. ​

SPEAKERS BIO

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Webinar recording: https://youtu.be/8oDHKdyhZO0

In recognition of Human Rights Day on December 10, SPICE is honored to feature Dr. Kiyoteru Tsutsui, Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. Tsutsui’s research and scholarship on the globalization of human rights and its impact on local policy and politics—particularly with regards to minority groups in Japan—has helped to shape student awareness and understanding of the multitude of issues surrounding the protection of human rights.

In this webinar, Tsutsui will address the following:

• How did “human rights” emerge as a universal norm and become institutionalized into various international treaties, organs, and instruments?
• What impact have all the international institutions had on actual local human rights practices?
• How do the case studies of the three most salient minority groups in Japan—the Ainu, Koreans, and Burakumin—help us to understand the transformative effect of global human rights ideas and institutions on minority activists?

Tsutsui’s in-depth historical comparative analysis in his book, Rights Make Might: Global Human Rights and Minority Social Movements in Japan, offers rare windows into local, micro-level impact of global human rights and contributes to our understanding of international norms and institutions, social movements, human rights, ethnoracial politics, and Japanese society.

This webinar is a joint collaboration between the Japan Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Center for East Asian Studies, and SPICE at Stanford University.

Featured Speaker:

Kiyoteru Tsutsui, PhD 

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His research on the globalization of human rights and its impact on local politics has appeared in numerous academic publications and social science journals. His recent book publications include Rights Make Might: Global Human Rights and Minority Social Movements in Japan (Oxford University Press 2018), and the co-edited volume Corporate Social Responsibility in a Globalizing World (with Alwyn Lim, Cambridge University Press 2015). He has been a recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, National Science Foundation grants, and the SSRC/CGP Abe Fellowship, among numerous other grants and awards. Tsutsui received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Kyoto University and earned an additional master’s degree and PhD from Stanford’s sociology department in 2002.

This presentation is part of the French Culture Workshop Series

Co-sponsored by:
The Department of French and Italian, The Europe Center, the France-Stanford Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, and the Department of History