Calumny! The Politics of Rumor, Innuendo, and Allegations of Crime

• In Event: Liberalism, Republicanism, and Communal Freedom in American Political Thought

Abstract

David Siemers’s “Calumny! The Politics of Rumor, Innuendo, and Allegations of Crime” takes as its theme the threat posed to republican self-government by public accusations of criminal behavior of a kind that are designed, not to be adjudicated in a court of law, but to discredit opponents politically and to erode trust in the political and legal system as a whole. Niccolo Machiavelli, in his Discourses on Livy, described calumny as a grave danger to republics, because no institutional process exists to impartially evaluate the truth or falseness of the charges. Calumnies stoke suspicions, not only against individuals, but also against the republic’s institutions as a whole. Though the word “calumny” is today hardly on the radar screen of anyone except scholars of Machiavelli’s political thought, David’s paper will argue that the political phenomenon to which “calumny” refers is of enormous contemporary importance, it has become increasingly widespread, and it poses significant risks to the stability of our democracy.

Author

• David Siemers, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh