A Modern Day Caesar? Donald Trump and American Caesarism
Corresponding Author
Brett Heino
Dr Brett Heino is a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney.
The author is grateful to Professor Adam Morton, Dr Eugene Schofield-Georgeson, Yvonne Apolo and Mungo Skyring for their insightful comments on the manuscript. Thanks are also due to the anonymous peer reviewers. Any errors and shortcomings are the author’s.
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Brett Heino
Dr Brett Heino is a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney.
The author is grateful to Professor Adam Morton, Dr Eugene Schofield-Georgeson, Yvonne Apolo and Mungo Skyring for their insightful comments on the manuscript. Thanks are also due to the anonymous peer reviewers. Any errors and shortcomings are the author’s.
Search for more papers by this authorDr Brett Heino is a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney.
The author is grateful to Professor Adam Morton, Dr Eugene Schofield-Georgeson, Yvonne Apolo and Mungo Skyring for their insightful comments on the manuscript. Thanks are also due to the anonymous peer reviewers. Any errors and shortcomings are the author’s.
Abstract
This article argues that the American political system under Donald Trump is an example of what Antonio Gramsci dubbed “Caesarism,” a situation where a taut balance of warring class forces allows for the emergence of a third force to freeze the antagonism and challenge/usurp established political institutions. To concretise Gramsci's rather abstract formulation and to better illuminate the nature of American Caesarism, this article employs a reading of the Roman poet Lucan's magisterial Civil War. Through a close reading of this text, we can explore the origins of Caesarism and study the efficacy of different means of struggle against it. Lucan thus helps us reinvigorate the concept of Caesarism and apply it in the contemporary American context. In particular, it will be demonstrated that whereas Lucan depicts a progressive form of Caesarism with a qualitatively new state form, the Trump administration embodies a regressive form of Caesarism within an old state form.
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