Abstract: Authoritarian values have long been thought to be an important determinant of public opinion and political behaviour including the support of populist political parties. Explanations for why some individuals have more authoritarian values than others have focused on various processes of socialization and economic conflict. Evidence that economic change fosters authoritarian values has primarily been based on aggregate correlations across countries or across time within countries or individual-level correlations between economic characteristics and authoritarian values.

2017 marks fifteen years since the death of John Bordley Rawls (1921-2002), author of a Theory of Justice, Political Liberalism, and The Law of Peoples. As a professor of Philosophy at Harvard, Rawls fundamentally transformed the discipline of political theory, and yet the nature—and the effects—of that transformation remain hotly contested. In Oxford, where Rawls’s influence is particularly strong, the tension has been framed as a commitment to contemporary normative theory in an analytic vein, over and against the history of political thought.

Join alumni in the contemporary tapestry studios at Dovecote for an evening of discussion, networking and refreshments.

The evening will be led by a talk by Professor Archie Brown on, 'What's so great about a strong leader?' There is widespread agreement that to have a strong leader is a ‘good thing’. Focusing especially on the UK and USA, and with a brief look at authoritarian regimes, Professor Brown will question the notion that strong, power-maximising leaders should be regarded as either the most successful or the most praiseworthy.

Discussant: Katerina Tertytchnaya (DPIR)

This talk examines the intersection between the counterinsurgency state and the marketing nation in Colombia. Through an ethnography of the government’s efforts to interpolate and demobilize fighters from leftist insurgencies, Dr Fattal analyzes the joint effort of the Program for Humanitarian Attention to the Demobilized in the Colombian Ministry of Defense and the consumer marketing firm it hires to transform guerrilla subjects into entrepreneurs and consumer citizens.

About the speaker: