Diffusion and Disappointment of the World Left

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Milan Bernard argues that that the anticipation of leftist diffusion influences partisans and adversaries, to see revolution as a potentially globalizing institution through a spill-over logic.

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Milan Bernard argues that that the anticipation of leftist diffusion influences partisans and adversaries, to see revolution as a potentially globalizing institution through a spill-over logic.

Image courtesy of interviewee. May 7, 2024

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The speaker reflects on their early academic work related to political movements, specifically focusing on the rise of a radical left party in Greece during the period following the Arab Spring (2014-2015). They explore the impact of this party on social movements globally and question whether it represents hope for democratization or a sign of inevitable failure. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding how political ideas and practices diffuse across national boundaries.

They argue for a deeper analysis of political theory in conjunction with international relations, aiming to bridge these fields to understand the spread of revolutionary ideas. They discuss the role of networks, both formal and informal, in facilitating the diffusion of ideas, and highlight that practitioners play a crucial role in translating these ideas into action.

The speaker shifts focus to the concept of solidarity, which has gained renewed interest during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how it can serve as a principle for political action rather than merely a moral or charitable concept. They underscore the significance of local and global networks in shaping political movements and the potential for grassroots resistance to spark larger changes.

Throughout the talk, the speaker emphasizes the unpredictability of political mobilization, advocating for a resilient approach that embraces uncertainty as a source of hope and inspiration for future social action in the face of global challenges like climate change and technological advancements.

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Here are five key points from the video:

1. **Convideo of Change (2014-2015)**: The speaker discusses a significant period in political history following the Arab Spring, particularly highlighting the rise of the left-wing radical party SYRIZA in Greece after the financial crisis. This moment was marked by a surge in global interest in social and activist movements, reflecting hopes for a new wave of democratization.

2. **Diffusion of Ideas**: The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding how ideas, norms, and practices diffuse across different political convideos. This concept is essential for recognizing how small movements or ideas can spark broader social changes, drawing upon historical examples and the constructivist school of thought in international relations.

3. **Bridging Theory and Practice**: There is a call to bridge the gap between political theory and practical applications of ideas, particularly in how practitioners and intellectuals can work together to implement those ideas effectively. The role of media and networks in this diffusion process is highlighted, showing that they are key in converting individual ideas into collective action.

4. **Solidarity as a Principle**: The video moves towards the idea of solidarity as a critical political principle that can unite individuals and drive action. The speaker is researching how solidarity can serve not just as a moral concept but as a guiding principle for organizing and mobilizing collective efforts to address societal challenges.

5. **Embracing the Unknown**: The speaker reflects on the importance of embracing uncertainty in political action. There's a suggestion that even in the face of global challenges like climate change and technological advancements, small-scale movements can contribute to significant change, and the unknown future should not be seen as a source of despair but rather as a potential for inspiration and hope.

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Here are some key quotes extracted from the video:

1. **Convideo of Research:**
- "It's interesting because this is sort of an old paper... early on in my academic career."
- "We go back to 2014, 2015, a few years after the Arab Spring."

2. **Social Movements and Democratization:**
- "There's a lot of talk about social movements... some people are even talking of a new wave of democratization."
- "How can we learn from other discipline about how changes evolve, how diffusion happens in politics?"

3. **Lessons from Example:**
- "Is it, are we doomed in that way? Is it like always gonna be like a failure?"
- "SIRA in Greece was not able to bring a global change as some people maybe interpreted it could."

4. **Diffusion of Ideas:**
- "Diffusion is something big into what we call the constructivist school of international relations."
- "Ideas are being adopted and now being copied from a country to another... sometimes as part of cultural zones."

5. **Practitioners vs. Intellectuals:**
- "The practitioners are really the entrepreneurs of ideas."
- "They bridge the divide between idea and practice."

6. **Importance of Networks:**
- "Sometimes ideas are developed in a certain convideo, and it's the network that diffuse it on the international level."
- "They're not secret societies. They're not operating in shadows."

7. **Resistance and Hope:**
- "There is a feeling that hope is no longer something that is global."
- "I think our hope is that they can bring a bigger change, but that we don't know."

8. **Embracing the Unknown:**
- "Embracing the unknown should maybe be something that we should be more comfortable with."
- "We’re not necessarily doomed because we don’t know if we are—maybe there’s hope."

These quotes capture critical themes such as the evolution of social movements, the diffusion of ideas, the roles of intellectuals and practitioners, the significance of networks, and the notion of hope in uncertain times.

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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In the context.

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It's, it's quite interesting

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because this is sort of an old paper.

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It's one of the first work that was published,

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early on in my academic career.

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And it was at a very interesting point in,

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politics back then.

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Uh, we go back to 20 14, 20 15, a few years

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after the Arab Spring.

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There's a lot of talk about, social movements,

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some activist movements, some,

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some people are even talking of a new wave of Democrat,

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of democratization.

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And there's that very specific situation

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that arises from Greece where

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after, the financial crisis, there's a small,

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very left wing radical party that, gains power

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that is in this, the driver's seat.

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And the, what I found interesting is that over that period

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where they were their first mandate, about the time,

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where they gained power and took a little bit

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after the referendum, that they've organized a lot of people

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around the world took their example

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and put all their oaks into that small little party.

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And my, interest at the time was like

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to see how we could, see it

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as an example for something else.

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Is it, is it, are we doomed in that way?

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Is it like always gonna be like a failure?

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Because in, at the end of the day,

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obviously like SIRA in Greece was not able to bring a global

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change as some people maybe interpreted it could.

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But I was seeing how can we learn from other

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discipline about how changes evolve,

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how diffusion happens in politics,

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and is it possible for small spark

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event to light up a fire to go, to go on

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and become something bigger?

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So that was really the context I was really interested in

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all the hopes that were put in that very specific situation

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and how it could evolve into something else.

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And what, where should we go from it,

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from them on an academic perspective?

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Like how should we learn from that event?

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And also, maybe on a more practice level, is there a way

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to organize learning from that?

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It's, it's interesting because the key of the paper was

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to put something that has been described more into the field

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of international relations and put it into political theory.

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So diffusion is, is, is something big into

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what we call the constructivist, school

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of international relations.

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They talked about how norms

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and how practices are be, are being adopted

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and now being copied from a country to another,

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Sometimes as part of alliance, military Alliance,

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or as part of cultural alliance or cultural zones.

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And I was saying in international relations,

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maybe we don't really get to, the

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base of the idea.

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We, we, we are still in the surface,

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and we don't necessarily go really deep

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into the understanding.

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So I said maybe a political theory

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approach would help us getting to that.

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So I've tried to bridge those two things.

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I've tried to bridge international relations concept

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and some of the authors

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that have defined the fusion in some way that,

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are talking about, revolutionary waves historically

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that have been talking about how practices, norms,

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and ideas go from international institutions to others,

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from local institutions to national institutions.

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And I've also talked about a little bit more about ideas

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and how they're being framed by a certain apparatus

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and then are being adopted by society

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and then can go on on a, a more global level.

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But what really,

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gained my interest in is something that I've,

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I'm still interested today is how can I,

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like someone can have an idea,

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somebody else can have an idea,

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but when is the moment that they are put together,

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how can we like come up

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and at some point reach a critical mass,

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a tipping point when it becomes something else, then

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individuals having an idea,

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and then it becomes a, a mass, a collective,

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like something social.

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And that's really what I was trying to get at, with

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that paper and how I was trying to, to do that.

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In other research that I've done.

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Uh, after that I've talked, the opposite way.

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I've talked about the diffusion of far right ideas.

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I've, I've talked about how, with my colleague Philip,

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I've talked about how,

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ideas were I imported from France to Quebec

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and Canada, about some debates that were

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quite frankly more specific to France itself,

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but they were still being discussed in the media

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and in political sphere in Quebec.

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So the diffusion is not something

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that is necessarily only for revolution.

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It goes from politics, it goes from norms, ideas, practices,

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institutions, and is, I wanted to,

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to let it go a little bit out of what was ordinary about it,

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which was to talk it more into like institution,

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un et cetera, and have it more in the fields of ideas

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from a political theory perspective.

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Yes. And, practitioners, it's, it's, it's quite funny

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because they're the one that are doing,

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the big work when you think about it,

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because as I said, the the ideas everybody,

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like, it's quite,

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There's, there's a, there's a role for intellectual.

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There's a, there's a role in, academia,

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there's a role in society,

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but the practitioners are really, entrepreneurs,

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the entrepreneurs of ideas.

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They're the one that can really bridge the,

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divide the gap between idea and practice.

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So when we talk about that, a lot

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of people associate it with media.

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They say the medias are the one that will put the,

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that will bridge that gap that will reach to the,

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the numbers that will go from individual to collective.

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But as we saw,

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and this is a little bit what I discussed in the paper,

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it's not just media

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because there are sometimes other factors

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that make it not something that,

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popular media will necessarily pay attention to.

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And sometimes they are networks of,

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political networks, sometimes even media networks

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that are created that bridge those gaps between countries

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and the ideas from somewhere are gonna be diffused

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and developed somewhere else.

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So that's why sometimes, the,

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the classic example in the literature is that,

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I am not sure about the, the quote itself,

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but like Karl Marx never thought

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that Russia would be the place

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for the emergence of socialism.

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Uh, it was an agrarian society.

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And China even worse, like, he thought that we needed,

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some sort of developments, stage in order to bring,

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a socialist revolution.

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So sometimes ideas are developed in a certain context,

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and it's the network that diffuse it on,

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on the international level,

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and then it is developed by practitioners somewhere else

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that adopt the ideas,

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but have the means to put it in practice.

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And that's what is, is, is really interesting

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because sometimes they evolved from a place to the other.

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The other bit about that is that,

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because those networks exist

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and they're known, they're, they're not secret societies.

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They're not operating in shadows.

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It also creates, a potential for backlash

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because people are sometimes afraid of what it could bring.

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So in the case of, left wing movements in 20th century,

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there's a lot of people that were afraid of a potential,

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war, communism nexus.

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That war would,

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put in contact some networks together, some people together,

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and that would bring communism to other countries.

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So it also affects the way

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that people are seeing their opponent.

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And that's like, the networks are so important

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that they not only affect the people that are on their side,

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but also on the other side.

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Because between countries, we often see countries,

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like if we were looking at a map, we see them

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with the borders traced from one another,

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but the, it's never really the case.

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Not that borders are that important

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and not that necessarily gonna go into that debate,

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but the, the, they are networks

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and institutions that go from one country to the other,

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from one society to the other.

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We often talk, think,

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when we think institution in political science,

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we always think of un nato, big,

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supernational organization, eu, name it.

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But sometimes it's way more on a local level.

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I, I will give you a a very specific example.

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Uh, there's a lot of people here

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that have family in the United States,

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and, they discuss with them on a regular basis,

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and it affects some of their views of the world.

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It affects some of their behaviors.

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It affects some of, their choices and vice versa.

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Not necessarily politically, sometimes politically,

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but those family networks, sometimes religious networks

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and sometimes academic networks.

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There's some professors that go on a research trip, they

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exchange it, they're interested in something, they go,

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they go have a, like a research grant

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and go on in another country.

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They read the, the material that was published by,

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another author.

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So that's really like, those networks are not necessarily

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institution, brick and mortar institution,

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but they can be, way more flexible.

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It, it's interesting

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because starting from that idea, from that diffusion idea,

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I was always, it never really quit me,

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even though I'm not working on,

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diffusions per se right now.

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I was always intrigued by, mobilization

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and what brings people together, what brings people

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to act together from, from a,

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an ideal perspective into putting it in practice.

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And then I stumbled upon the idea of solidarity.

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And it's, it is really what I'm working right now, on,

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on the, on the number of different research.

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I'm working on solidarity,

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because it is a political

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aspect, a political principle that can unite,

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that can guide action.

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And this what leads to NRR,

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because NRR discusses solidarity just a little bit.

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She, it's not a central aspect of her work,

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but action is really what is the main team of

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an hourand philosophy or ontology.

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Uh, action is what is,

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Without going too much into the detail, something

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that should be,

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probably the overarching political,

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political mindset and what we should lead

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and what should lead politicians

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and politics should be principles of action.

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And what I'm trying to research right now is to see

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how solidarity can be a principle for action.

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How c, how it can be a principle rather than just a moral

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mindset or just an ethical perspective.

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Because we say a lot in the kind of day-to-day,

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ba day-to-day conversation.

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Like, I, I'm acting in solidarity towards someone,

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even though we sometimes, kind of use it as a,

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as a replacement for charity or for being paternal

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or for being close to someone.

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There's a politicians love talking about solidarity,

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and sometimes it's it's way, it's, it's something

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that is closer to a classical sense of Christian charity.

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Uh, not to nag on Christian charity,

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but those are a very different, political phenomenon.

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So this is what I'm, I'm working on right now trying to,

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to, to go, to go on that there was a, a spike

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of interest for the concept of solidarity.

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I don't think it's a surprise, during,

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the COVID-19 pandemic

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because there's a lot of people that were kind of trying

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to see, a little bit,

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because the, that language was very, used,

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during that, that time.

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And there, there was a lot of publication.

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Uh, it's slowed down a little bit right now,

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but I, I still think that there's a lot

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of interesting research to do on that.

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Well, it's, it's, it's interesting going back

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to a paper I wrote, now almost 10 years ago,

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because, there is a feeling that,

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hope is no longer something that is global,

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that is no longer something on the big scale

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that we should maybe focus on

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some smaller scale resistance.

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Uh, there's a lot of works that are talking about

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parcels of resistance, about the lir practice,

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that are being done.

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Um, I, I,

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I don't know if we should give up for good.

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I think there, something that has been in multiple

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works of history and multiple works of political science is

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that, you cannot force a spark.

14:36.075 --> 14:40.615
You cannot force something to happen, if the,

14:40.635 --> 14:42.415
the true meaning of politics

14:42.515 --> 14:46.695
and the true meaning of acting together as some sort of,

14:47.195 --> 14:49.655
and it's a little esoteric to talk about it,

14:49.715 --> 14:50.855
but something a little bit

14:50.975 --> 14:53.925
Magic magical, arriving with it

14:53.925 --> 14:58.165
because it's hard to, put together people.

14:58.345 --> 15:02.565
But sometimes there are events that bring people together,

15:03.145 --> 15:06.645
and then the, the kind of work is already laid out for them.

15:07.435 --> 15:12.085
It's the, the pat seems completely, not easy

15:12.185 --> 15:13.325
to follow, but it seems

15:13.325 --> 15:15.405
that it's the only path that they can follow.

15:16.185 --> 15:20.245
So I think that with the big challenges

15:20.245 --> 15:23.355
that are coming ahead, there's climate change.

15:23.755 --> 15:26.835
A lot of people are talking about technology, ai,

15:27.305 --> 15:30.795
there's a lot of work that can be done,

15:31.615 --> 15:34.155
and there's a lot of organizing that can be done.

15:34.735 --> 15:36.075
But I think that

15:36.775 --> 15:40.115
we should invest those parcels of resistance.

15:41.055 --> 15:45.355
And I think our hope is that they can bring a bigger change,

15:45.855 --> 15:48.795
but that, that we, we don't know.

15:49.065 --> 15:53.275
It's, and I think that's the, the s silver lining is maybe

15:53.305 --> 15:56.435
that the fact that we don't know can be a source

15:56.435 --> 15:57.915
of inspiration for us,

15:57.985 --> 16:00.515
because nothing is really, like, it's not,

16:00.525 --> 16:02.075
we're not necessarily doomed

16:02.075 --> 16:05.635
because we don't know if we are, maybe there's hope.

16:05.815 --> 16:08.835
So the, the unknown embracing the unknown,

16:08.935 --> 16:12.115
and it's something that is also present in Anna Iran's work,

16:12.585 --> 16:15.555
embracing the unknown should maybe be something

16:15.905 --> 16:17.835
that we should be more comfortable with.

16:18.145 --> 16:20.075
Well, I, I kind of agree with you that

16:20.075 --> 16:22.075
that was pretty good at it, is something

16:22.075 --> 16:25.275
that is really in my head, that has been in my head

16:25.295 --> 16:26.355
for a bit like that.

16:26.465 --> 16:30.315
Sort of should we, should we give up for good?

16:30.375 --> 16:32.035
Should, is there something?

16:32.495 --> 16:36.555
And embracing the unknown is, is a, is a team of research

16:36.665 --> 16:39.915
that I, I hope to, to, to go further with.

Reflections on Political Movements and Diffusion

00:00:00 - In the context. It's, it's quite interesting because this is sort of an old paper. It's one of the first work that was published, early on in my academic career. And it was at a very interesting point in, politics back then. we go back to 20 14, 20 15, a few years after the Arab Spring. There's a lot of talk about, social movements, some activist movements, some, some people are even talking of a new wave of Democrat,
00:00:34 - And there's that very specific situation that arises from Greece where after, the financial crisis, there's a small, very left wing radical party that, gains power that is in this, the driver's seat. And the, what I found interesting is that over that period where they were their first mandate, about the time, where they gained power and took a little bit
00:01:08 - around the world took their example and put all their oaks into that small little party. And my, interest at the time was like to see how we could, see it as an example for something else. Is it, is it, are we doomed in that way? Is it like always gonna be like a failure? Because in, at the end of the day,
00:01:39 - change as some people maybe interpreted it could. But I was seeing how can we learn from other discipline about how changes evolve, how diffusion happens in politics, and is it possible for small spark event to light up a fire to go, to go on and become something bigger?
00:02:08 - all the hopes that were put in that very specific situation and how it could evolve into something else. And what, where should we go from it, from them on an academic perspective? Like how should we learn from that event? And also, maybe on a more practice level, is there a way to organize learning from that? It's, it's interesting because the key of the paper was to put something that has been described more into the field
00:02:42 - So diffusion is, is, is something big into what we call the constructivist, school of international relations. They talked about how norms and how practices are be, are being adopted and now being copied from a country to another, Sometimes as part of alliance, military Alliance, or as part of cultural alliance or cultural zones. And I was saying in international relations,

Bridging Political Theory and Social Movements

00:03:14 - base of the idea. We, we, we are still in the surface, and we don't necessarily go really deep into the understanding. So I said maybe a political theory approach would help us getting to that. So I've tried to bridge those two things. I've tried to bridge international relations concept and some of the authors that have defined the fusion in some way that, are talking about, revolutionary waves historically
00:03:45 - and ideas go from international institutions to others, from local institutions to national institutions. And I've also talked about a little bit more about ideas and how they're being framed by a certain apparatus and then are being adopted by society and then can go on on a, a more global level. But what really, gained my interest in is something that I've,
00:04:16 - like someone can have an idea, somebody else can have an idea, but when is the moment that they are put together, how can we like come up and at some point reach a critical mass, a tipping point when it becomes something else, then individuals having an idea, and then it becomes a, a mass, a collective, like something social. And that's really what I was trying to get at, with that paper and how I was trying to, to do that.
00:04:47 - after that I've talked, the opposite way. I've talked about the diffusion of far right ideas. I've, I've talked about how, with my colleague Philip, I've talked about how, ideas were I imported from France to Quebec and Canada, about some debates that were quite frankly more specific to France itself, but they were still being discussed in the media
00:05:20 - So the diffusion is not something that is necessarily only for revolution. It goes from politics, it goes from norms, ideas, practices, institutions, and is, I wanted to, to let it go a little bit out of what was ordinary about it, which was to talk it more into like institution, un et cetera, and have it more in the fields of ideas from a political theory perspective. Yes. And, practitioners, it's, it's, it's quite funny because they're the one that are doing,
00:05:51 - because as I said, the the ideas everybody, like, it's quite, There's, there's a, there's a role for intellectual. There's a, there's a role in, academia, there's a role in society, but the practitioners are really, entrepreneurs, the entrepreneurs of ideas. They're the one that can really bridge the, divide the gap between idea and practice. So when we talk about that, a lot

Media, Networks, and Political Idea Diffusion

00:06:24 - They say the medias are the one that will put the, that will bridge that gap that will reach to the, the numbers that will go from individual to collective. But as we saw, and this is a little bit what I discussed in the paper, it's not just media because there are sometimes other factors that make it not something that, popular media will necessarily pay attention to.
00:06:56 - political networks, sometimes even media networks that are created that bridge those gaps between countries and the ideas from somewhere are gonna be diffused and developed somewhere else. So that's why sometimes, the, the classic example in the literature is that, I am not sure about the, the quote itself, but like Karl Marx never thought that Russia would be the place for the emergence of socialism.
00:07:26 - And China even worse, like, he thought that we needed, some sort of developments, stage in order to bring, a socialist revolution. So sometimes ideas are developed in a certain context, and it's the network that diffuse it on, on the international level, and then it is developed by practitioners somewhere else that adopt the ideas, but have the means to put it in practice. And that's what is, is, is really interesting
00:08:00 - The other bit about that is that, because those networks exist and they're known, they're, they're not secret societies. They're not operating in shadows. It also creates, a potential for backlash because people are sometimes afraid of what it could bring. So in the case of, left wing movements in 20th century, there's a lot of people that were afraid of a potential,
00:08:29 - That war would, put in contact some networks together, some people together, and that would bring communism to other countries. So it also affects the way that people are seeing their opponent. And that's like, the networks are so important that they not only affect the people that are on their side, but also on the other side. Because between countries, we often see countries,
00:09:01 - with the borders traced from one another, but the, it's never really the case. Not that borders are that important and not that necessarily gonna go into that debate, but the, the, they are networks and institutions that go from one country to the other, from one society to the other. We often talk, think, when we think institution in political science, we always think of un nato, big, supernational organization, eu, name it.

Networking and the Essence of Solidarity

00:09:35 - I, I will give you a a very specific example. there's a lot of people here that have family in the United States, and, they discuss with them on a regular basis, and it affects some of their views of the world. It affects some of their behaviors. It affects some of, their choices and vice versa. Not necessarily politically, sometimes politically, but those family networks, sometimes religious networks
00:10:06 - There's some professors that go on a research trip, they exchange it, they're interested in something, they go, they go have a, like a research grant and go on in another country. They read the, the material that was published by, another author. So that's really like, those networks are not necessarily institution, brick and mortar institution, but they can be, way more flexible. It, it's interesting because starting from that idea, from that diffusion idea,
00:10:42 - even though I'm not working on, diffusions per se right now. I was always intrigued by, mobilization and what brings people together, what brings people to act together from, from a, an ideal perspective into putting it in practice. And then I stumbled upon the idea of solidarity. And it's, it is really what I'm working right now, on,
00:11:15 - I'm working on solidarity, because it is a political aspect, a political principle that can unite, that can guide action. And this what leads to NRR, because NRR discusses solidarity just a little bit. She, it's not a central aspect of her work, but action is really what is the main team of
00:11:49 - action is what is, Without going too much into the detail, something that should be, probably the overarching political, political mindset and what we should lead and what should lead politicians and politics should be principles of action. And what I'm trying to research right now is to see how solidarity can be a principle for action.
00:12:22 - mindset or just an ethical perspective. Because we say a lot in the kind of day-to-day, ba day-to-day conversation. Like, I, I'm acting in solidarity towards someone, even though we sometimes, kind of use it as a, as a replacement for charity or for being paternal or for being close to someone. There's a politicians love talking about solidarity,

Exploring Solidarity and Political Resistance

00:12:53 - that is closer to a classical sense of Christian charity. not to nag on Christian charity, but those are a very different, political phenomenon. So this is what I'm, I'm working on right now trying to, to, to go, to go on that there was a, a spike of interest for the concept of solidarity. I don't think it's a surprise, during,
00:13:24 - because there's a lot of people that were kind of trying to see, a little bit, because the, that language was very, used, during that, that time. And there, there was a lot of publication. it's slowed down a little bit right now, but I, I still think that there's a lot of interesting research to do on that. Well, it's, it's, it's interesting going back to a paper I wrote, now almost 10 years ago, because, there is a feeling that,
00:13:59 - that is no longer something on the big scale that we should maybe focus on some smaller scale resistance. there's a lot of works that are talking about parcels of resistance, about the lir practice, that are being done. I, I, I don't know if we should give up for good. I think there, something that has been in multiple
00:14:33 - that, you cannot force a spark. You cannot force something to happen, if the, the true meaning of politics and the true meaning of acting together as some sort of, and it's a little esoteric to talk about it, but something a little bit Magic magical, arriving with it because it's hard to, put together people. But sometimes there are events that bring people together,
00:15:07 - It's the, the pat seems completely, not easy to follow, but it seems that it's the only path that they can follow. So I think that with the big challenges that are coming ahead, there's climate change. A lot of people are talking about technology, ai, there's a lot of work that can be done, and there's a lot of organizing that can be done.
00:15:36 - we should invest those parcels of resistance. And I think our hope is that they can bring a bigger change, but that, that we, we don't know. It's, and I think that's the, the s silver lining is maybe that the fact that we don't know can be a source of inspiration for us, because nothing is really, like, it's not, we're not necessarily doomed because we don't know if we are, maybe there's hope.

Embracing the Unknown in Political Thought

00:16:08 - and it's something that is also present in Anna Iran's work, embracing the unknown should maybe be something that we should be more comfortable with. Well, I, I kind of agree with you that that was pretty good at it, is something that is really in my head, that has been in my head for a bit like that. Sort of should we, should we give up for good? Should, is there something? And embracing the unknown is, is a, is a team of research
00:16:36 -

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