Wired for Authoritarianism

American Oligarchies and How to Re-Wire America for the People

Wired for Authoritarianism combines historical analysis with an innovative conceptual analysis of the “wiring” of power, arguing that the Trump era has moved America from a long-standing, mainly covert authoritarian structure toward a more dominant and overt authoritarianism.

In contrast to much of the current literature that treats Trump’s authoritarianism as new and singular, this book shows that authoritarianism in the United States instead has a long history that explains the extent to which authoritarianism has been embraced by large sections of US voters.

Wired for Authoritarianism combines historical analysis with an innovative conceptual analysis of the “wiring” of power, drawing on the study of the power elite developed by the sociologist C. Wright Mills and neo‑Marxist literature. Connecting the social and political culture of the elite to the ideas of state and societal capture, as well as novel concepts of covert and overt wiring of power, this book argues that the Trump era has moved America from a long‑standing, mainly covert authoritarian structure toward a more dominant and overt authoritarianism—from a position in which oligarchs exercise power from outside of official government positions to one in which corporate oligarchs are directly in top government positions.

This book offers original insights and sober hope for all those seeking deep and sustainable democracy in America, summarizing strategies drawn from history and current anti‑authoritarian movements to defeat this new turn and create a new democratic wiring of America for the people. This book will be of interest to students, scholars and activists with an interest in political sociology, political economy and social movements in the US, as well as to the general public in the US and around the world.

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