Review: #Republic, by Cass R. Sunstein

The author

Cass Sunstein

Legal scholar Cass Sunstein, who is Robert Walmsley university professor at Harvard University, was “raised mostly in Newton, Massachusetts, and I think the major characteristic that I can attribute to the town is a love for three things: suburbs, sports and dogs. Sports in particular were big in my childhood, including baseball and tennis. Labrador retrievers were plentiful (praise the Lord).”

He was, he recalls, “was anything but a studious child, and the idea of the life of the mind would have made me nauseated (now as well as then, I confess). In terms of reading, I was more a comic book child (Spiderman, Fantastic Four, and of course Thor) and a baseball card child. My mother did love books, and when I hit 12 or 13, I started to enjoy novels – but I wasn’t at all studious until sophomore year in high school at the very earliest.”

While an undergraduate at Harvard, Sunstein “played on the varsity squash team – we were national champions – and that was my favourite activity. I was also an enthusiastic English major, and I wrote my undergraduate thesis on Samuel Beckett. So you could say literary, in that sense, though I was hardly a literary type. In sports and studies, I confess to having been a pretty hard worker, though both seemed more fun than work.”

#Republic was “preponed”, meaning it appeared earlier than originally planned. “The reason is that it was more timely than we originally thought. I love love love (love) the monograph format and don’t think it is outdated at all. There’s something soul-crushing as well as brain-crushing about social media, at least by comparison to real books. “Fast takes” tend to be horrible. The good news is that publishers can get books out pretty quickly these days.”

Sunstein has been on Twitter since 2012 and follows just 186 feeds. If being exposed to a broader range of opinions is important for social media users, would he encourage Twitter users to be judicious in who they follow, or to follow as many (different) people as possible? “I would have thought that 186 is a lot!” he protests, laughing. “Oh well. Also, I get the vast majority of my information from sources other than Twitter. I would encourage people to expand their horizons in terms of both topics and perspectives – especially, to avoid anything like an echo chamber. It’s important to be able to give a sympathetic, credible account of the views of the people with whom you intensely disagree.”

Is he more pessimistic about Twitter’s and Facebook’s potential as forces for good than he was in 2012? And does he believe that owners of social media platforms can be encouraged to broaden the diet of opinions their users encounter? “As the great psychologist Amos Tversky one said, ‘I am an optimist – because if you’re a pessimist, you suffer twice.’ Sure, Facebook and Twitter can do a much better, and from public reports, Facebook is working on that. I expect to see big improvements from Facebook in particular.”

What disappoints him, if anything, about Barack Obama’s eight years in office? “President Obama has been a friend of mine for decades, and he was my boss for four years; I am a great admirer of his. His presidency is full of extraordinary achievements, perhaps above all helping to prevent a depression. In the domain of regulation, which I know best, he produced well over $200 billion [£161 billion] in net benefits – and that figure includes many thousands of lives saved annually. An answer to the ‘what disappoints you most’ question would be a big distraction from the many achievements. (Ok, I am most disappointed that he didn’t manage to change the Constitution so that he could run for a third term.)”

In 2010, the UK’s coalition government set up a Behavioural Insights Team which was known as the “Nudge Unit”, owing to the influence of Nudge: Improving Decisions about Wealth, Health and Happiness, a 2008 book written by Sunstein and Richard H. Thaler. Does Sunstein believe it used his work responsibly? “Yes, it did, and it also went in multiple directions that reflected the originality and creativity of the people who worked and work there. They’ve done many great things to help the citizens of the UK – some of it quietly, but very effectively.”

If he could change one thing about Harvard Law School, what would it be? “The temperature would be a bit warmer (but that seems to be happening anyhow).”

What gives Sunstein hope? “The human heart, which is full of mischief, joy, curiosity, perspective, a capacity to connect, a keen interest in being surprised, and kindness. Also, the novel Possession by A.S. Byatt. Also, stories about time travel; Bob Dylan’s Buckets of Rain; Drake’s Started from the Bottom; and Taylor Swift’s 22.”

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