This dissertation attempts to understand the contemporary phenomenon of White politicalviolence in the United States. Specifically, I challenge the notion that such violence can be considered merely a deviant or criminal aberration by showing how the fluctuating relationship between White violence and either support for or condemnation of State institutions reveals how fundamentally intertwined such violence is to Whiteness and American democracy more broadly. From within a theoretical perspective that emphasizes the historical relationship between White violence and democracy in the United States, this dissertation presents a mixed-methods approach that explores the commonalities between mainstream Whites who have high levels of attachment to their White identity and members of extremist hate groups who engage in overt racist language and violent activity. The main difference between these subsections of the population appears to rest on whether they see mainstream institutions as sufficiently enforcing White hierarchy and privilege, or whether violent action is needed to supplement or replace official avenues. This is shown through analyses of survey data, machine learning performed on hate crimes and extremist blog text, and my own field work within online pro-White and extremist groups.

This project evaluates the relationship between human well-being and collective institutions. Specifically, using the combined and essentialist wisdom of Aristotle, Marx, and Nussbaum, I argue in favor of human well-being understood as ‘human flourishing,’ which can be roughly characterized as the complete fulfilment of uniquely human potential. Because material conditions are determinants of one’s ability to flourish, I further argue that current societal institutions preclude real and equal opportunities for individual flourishing. Namely, I argue that large-scale, representative democracy and its complementarity of global capitalism are detrimental to the project of human flourishing, as they prohibit the adequate provision of the material preconditions for such flourishing. The project is written in the context of worsening environmental crisis. In order to salvage our planet and make real the equal opportunity for individual flourishing—which corresponds to greater societal flourishing—there must occur a radical reimagining of democracy and market economies. In the spirit of Rousseau, Pateman, and others, I argue in favor of small-scale, direct democracy. Using the innovative research of international degrowth scholars, I argue for a transformation in the relationships between humans and the natural world, humans and the supply and consumption of resources, as well as current generations and future generations, ultimately arguing in favor of Gandhian ‘village economies’ as a way for individuals to maintain autonomy, and in turn, the material preconditions for enduring human flourishing.

The emerging field of “comparative political theory” has examined political thought from China, India, and the Islamic world, but has hitherto overlooked Vietnam. It turns out that thinkers in marginal civilizations like Vietnam were actually doing the kinds of creative and hybridizing theoretical moves we would today characterize as comparative political theory. This dissertation is the first book-length scholarly work to introduce Vietnamese political thought to the academic field of political theory. I examine the political thought of five Vietnamese thinkers: Phan Chu Trinh (1872-1926), Nguyen An Ninh (1900-1943), Pham Quynh (1892-1945), Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969), and Nguyen Manh Tuong (1909-1997). Responding to French colonialism in Vietnam, they each proposed a different way of diagnosing problems facing the Vietnamese, a solution to those problems, and how Western ideas might play a role in the solution. Each chapter is devoted to one thinker and shows how his ideas intervene in, challenge, or enhance a debate in political theory. The dissertation covers a broad range of political theory debates (liberalism, democracy, national identity, civic and cosmopolitanism virtue, postcolonialism, revolution, and skepticism). However, a theme that cuts across all chapters is that they all conducted engaged comparative political theory, namely, they compare between Eastern and Western moral traditions to find the best ideas for the Vietnamese. This dissertation ultimately argues that their writings should be understood as a debate over how to construct a cosmopolitan national identity. From them, we gain five lessons that have the potential to be universalizable: (1) Misinterpretations of and overidealizing Others can actually be invigorating or instructive. (2) National shame over the inadequacies of your own people can actually be productive. (3) Assertive agreeability is a cosmopolitan virtue. (4) One understanding of revolution is the humanization of all who have been dehumanized. And lastly, (5) skepticism and love for diversity (by way of Montaigne) can be used to combat dogmatism and authoritarianism.

In recent years the power of technology has increased dramatically. From tech companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon expanding their control over the online marketplace through their flagship products like Google Search, to their increasing desire to conquer new markets, like Amazon’s foray into brick-and-mortar shops, and Facebook’s currency projects their power over our lives has only gotten more complete. Similarly, we see the power of the state growing in conjunction with its new technological capacity. The revelations of Edward Snowden provide an account of the burgeoning surveillance apparatus of the state, a mechanism that has only continued to advance. In the academy too, the power of technology has become essential for research within the social science, with ever more complicated forms of statistical and causal interference becoming all but required for the completion of a graduate degree, and success as a scholar. The thread that ties all these elements together is the development of a complex infrastructure of big data. Big data, colloquially understood as the presentation of datasets too large for conventional or consumer-oriented computing to handle, has become the backbone of the tech industry, the state and of cutting-edge scholarly research. However, the social and political implication of the collection, management and usage of big data and its associated analytics has been understudied. To help address this problem I propose a new critical theory of technology, focusing on the power of big data aimed at understanding its political outcomes. I explore the power of big data as a new form of biopolitical control over our lives, trace the ontological impact of big data on the form of the enlightenment era person, and bring to light the epistemological commitments of big data. In this way this dissertation addresses a growing problem in society, the usage of big data to increasingly manage our political and social lives and adds to the existing critical theory literature on technology.