Associationalism and Panopticism in American Democracy: An Analysis of Jewish Power

Power in a democracy is never stable. By its very nature, democracy invites challenges to those who wield power in it. But its system of power distribution is lasting. How modern liberal democracies create durable governments has been a much-studied question. In particular, the subject of how the majority and minority access and respond to power is of interest. Alexis de Tocqueville was one of the first to study the political structure of the United States and strongly believed associationalism was the key to stabilizing democracy. Through creating associations, political groups can attempt to increase their ranks enough to become the majority over time, removing the need for violent upheaval. Tocqueville’s associationalism becomes even more powerful when combined with Michel Foucault’s idea of panoptic power. Foucault believed modern societies create panopticons to discipline citizens, using surveillance, normalization, and examination to make power more sustainable. Both mechanisms are means to create secure power structures that make people feel free, and when united create an interesting theory of democratic power. Democracies rely on panoptic power to create good citizens and righteous government, which employs associations as a tool to control citizens. These associations have important implications for the Jews, a minority that frequently has politics organized against them. Associationalism gives Jews access to political power but also subjects them to panoptic oversight, where their behavior is made to assimilate to a certain collective American standard. The Jewish people have historically exercised political power disproportionally to their size in the US, such as during the second wave of American socialism before World War II, because of their powerful associations.