After revolutionaries win power, what new challenges do they face and how do they confront them? This panel turns to thinkers in the "second world" (the Soviet Union and other socialist states) and the "third world" (post-independence countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean). How did intellectuals, activists, politicians, and citizens (or those who claimed to represent them) in these states confront the task of establishing and exercising legitimate authority capable of running a sovereign state that would dignify and fulfill the needs of their citizens? How did they deal with internal and external challenges, especially during times of crisis — political, social, economic, and environmental?
Internally, the post-colonial or post-revolutionary state has faced recurring crises of authority —around corruption, exclusion, and the limits of formal institutions. These crises generate competing claims over who governs, on whose behalf, and through what means. Rather than assuming a straightforward opposition between state power and citizen demands, this panel asks how authority is contested, negotiated, and reproduced in practice.
Externally, post-colonial and post-revolutionary states contend with ongoing legacies of colonial extraction and structural inequality, as well as more recent forms of foreign intervention. These external presences reshape what states can do, whom they answer to, and what authority means in practice. How do national officials navigate the moral and political demands of governing when resources and priorities are set from outside? This panel brings together diverse scholars to explore the nature of these challenges to post-colonial and post-revolutionary power and authority and how various actors have dealt with them.
