Fear in democracy: A study of Thucydides' political thought.

Abstract

Fear has a profound effect on democratic politics---societies. In his <italic>History of the Peloponnesian War</italic>, Thucydides shows how fear operates in democratic regimes and how they should respond to fear. He demonstrates that fear harms democracy and makes two normative arguments about place of fear in democracy. First, fear should not be introduced intentionally into democratic politics or used as a foundation for democratic society. Second, in spite of the harm that fear can cause democracy, it is the form of government best suited to overcome the problems that fear poses to civic order. Democratic fear is the response by the people in their capacity as a sovereign body to threats that they believe will cause them harm. Such fear has the potential to lead to radical political action, from enhanced unity needed to meet threats---the panic benefit---to anti-democratic revolutions, <italic> coups d'etat</italic>, and mass persecutions. Since knowledge of threats is imperfect, democratic fear is open to manipulation. Often fear-mongers attempt to stimulate fear to effect political change for their own benefit. Democratic deliberative bodies respond to fear-mongering primarily in two ways. First, they become suspicious of the fear-monger and those who may support him. This leads to decreased civic trust, increased fear, and the collapse of the political community. Second, especially when multiple fear-mongers attempt to stimulate mutually exclusive fears, democratic bodies show resilience. They react with skepticism, use the assembly to test fear-mongering claims, and delay radical action until they are certain about the reality of the threats cited. When faced with clear and present dangers, democratic regimes, unlike oligarchic ones, accept their reality and act to minimize the harm that they threaten. Thucydides' arguments challenge contemporary theoretical claims about the role of fear in democracy. For example, Thucydides rejects suggestions that fear is a secure foundation for a democratic state or that democracies should take extraordinary measures to remove fear from their politics. By challenging contemporary thinking about democratic fear, Thucydides provides an alternative model for assessing the effect of fear on democratic politics and minimizing its harm.