40210 - Violence, Interpretation, and the State: Authoritarian Strategies from Coercion to Consent

Description

This panel explores the persistence of authoritarian structures, the strategic use of violence, and the role of cultural and interpretive frameworks in shaping political and social order. By bringing together studies on militarized policing, violent capital, avant-garde art in nationalizing regimes, comparative frameworks of caste and race, and the confessional infrastructures of 18th-century Italy, the papers seek to examine the ways in which authoritarian practices persist, adapt, and legitimize themselves across different historical and geopolitical contexts.

Monetti’s study of militarized policing in Brazil highlights the enduring legacies of authoritarian security governance in hybrid regimes, where democratic institutions coexist with repressive security strategies. This persistence of coercive state practices aligns with Hass’s conceptualization of violence as an asset, not merely a tool of coercion but a cultivated resource leveraged by states to maintain control and achieve political ends. Grumbach’s examination of avant-garde art under fascist regimes provides a complementary perspective by demonstrating how cultural production serves as a mechanism of state power in Italy, Spain, and Argentina. Birla’s analysis of caste and race problematizes conventional frameworks of comparison, revealing how conceptions of history shape the very terms of comparison and solidarity. Finally, Zampieri’s study of confessional infrastructures in Northern Italy illustrates how disciplinary and cultural mechanisms facilitate the delegation of interpretive power, ensuring both control and inscrutability. This resonates with broader discussions on governance and legitimacy, offering insight into how authority is both enforced and concealed across different domains.

Together, these papers provide a rich interdisciplinary exploration of how authoritarianism, violence, cultural production, and interpretive authority interact in shaping political and social systems.

Sub Unit

• Comparative Historical Sociology

Individual Presentations

• A Democratic Veneer: Authoritarian Legacies and the Persistence of Militarized Policing in Brazil - Luiza Monetti, University of California-Los Angeles

• Bureaucrats of the Soul. Infrastructuring the Delegation of Interpretive Power in Northern Italy, circa 1750–1800. - Giovanni Zampieri, University of Padova (Italy)

• Caste and Race: The Contingent Politics of Comparison and Connections - Swati Birla, SUNY-New Paltz

• Violence, War, and Hierarchy: Violent Capital - Jeffrey Hass, University of Richmond

• When the Avant-Garde Was Popular: Mobilizing Art in Nationalizing Regimes in Italy, Spain, and Argentina - Matthew Grumbach, University of California-Berkeley

Discussant

• Anna K.M. Skarpelis, CUNY-Queens College

Session Organizer

• Anna K.M. Skarpelis, CUNY-Queens College