Announcements
In an Op Ed in the New York Times on April 5, Ross Douthat cites the new working paper by Oded Galor and Marc Klemp, "Roots of Autocracy," when pointing out that more heterogenous populations have often been associated in history with more authoritarian rulers.
Douthat cites the paper while making a connection to racial and ethnic divisions in the contemporary United States and the election of Donald Trump as President. He suggests that ethnic and racial diversity can be manipulated by authoritarian rulers for their own advancement, but that there are also historical models of "good emperors" who wisely offer each segment of a diverse polity's population its rightful voice and protections.