Localism vs. the Politics of Abstraction

Local action is the arena in which people are needed by others

 
In 1742 the Scottish philosopher David Hume wrote, “Parties from principle, especially abstract speculative principle, are known only to modern times, and are, perhaps, the most extraordinary and unaccountable phenomenon that has appeared in human affairs.”

Hume’s observation is a useful insight into the kinds of division and polarization that characterize the American political landscape today.

Like America’s founders after him, Hume was interested in how political factions operate. He observed that factions in the modern era had started behaving in ideological ways. Ideology, or “abstract speculative principle” in his vernacular, had become a powerful force in human associations, fueling the passions in ways that more mundane reasons for forming associations did not.

“Parties of interest” were more historically familiar than “parties of principle,” he argued, uniting citizens around common commercial and geographic interests. If, say, a politician has a keen interest in promoting solar energy because producers of solar products are in her district, she is acting out of interest. If her political decisions are framed by an abstract notion of “climate justice,” she is behaving ideologically.

In his day, Hume was primarily concerned with how religious abstractions were corrupting the pursuit of common political interests. But his observations are just as relevant today, as secular ideological commitments advance through a kind of zealotry akin to the religious fanaticism of Hume’s day.

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Ryan Streeter is the director of domestic policy at the American Enterprise Institute and a contributor to the American Project.

 
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Localism vs. the Politics of Abstraction

 
Πηγή: aei.org