Author Archives: Peter

About Peter

Associate Dean for Faculty and the Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Tufts University's Tisch College of Civic Life. Concerned about civic education, civic engagement, and democratic reform in the United States and elsewhere.

Hannah Arendt: I’m Nothing but a Little Dot

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(Cincinnati) In 1947, Hannah Arendt wrote a short poem, “Ich bin ja nur ein kleiner Punkt,” which Samantha Rose Hill accurately and ably translates as “I am just a little point / no more than a spot. …”

I took more liberty to make this translation, imitating Arendt’s strong rhyme-scheme:

I’m nothing but a little dot
No bigger than that black spot,
The beginning of a square.

When I want to expand from there
I start to daub spots everywhere.
My pencil lead (or ink is worse)
Casts on everything my curse.

But--I am nothing but a dot,
Not even a very well-made spot,
Radiant as the start of squares.

I think this is a poem about writing. The middle verse describes someone like Hannah Arendt in the midst of a project, spreading argumentative words in every direction, cursing (or perhaps bewitching) her surroundings with her ideas. But she had started with a single mark. Sometimes she identifies more with that humble first dot than with her whole, ambitious project.

The third stanza almost repeats the first, with the crucial difference that a single geometrical square has become plural, and her little dot (Punkt) “shines” or is “resplendent” (prunkt). It may be humble, but it has potential.

In the original:

Ich bin ja nur ein kleiner Punkt 
nicht grösser als der schwarze 
der dort auf dem Papiere 
als Anfang zum Quadrate.

Wenn ich mich sehr erweitern will,
beginn ich sehr zu klecksen, 
mit Stift und Feder, Blei und Tint 
die Umwelt zu behexen.

Doch bin ich nur ein kleiner Punkt 
nicht einmal gut geraten, 
der auf den Papieren prunkt 
als Anfang zu Quadraten.

German text from What Remains: The Collected Poems of Hannah Arendt (Liveright, 2024), translated by Samantha Rose Hill with Genese Grill. See also: “Complaint,” by Hannah Arendt

Frontiers of Democracy conference 2025

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Frontiers of Democracy 2025:  Listening and Leading
June 19 – 21 | Tufts University, Medford, MA

It’s time to register and purchase tickets for Frontiers of Democracy 2025!
 
This summer’s conference will take place June 19 (5:30 pm) to June 21 (12:30 pm), at Tufts University’s campus in Medford, MA.
 
This year’s special theme is “Listening and Leading.” We recognize that crises of democracy can be caused and fueled by division and polarization,and that listening and dialogue may be part of the solution. We thus anticipate rich discussions and constructive disagreements about how we navigate these frontiers of democracy. There will be sessions on other topics also related to Tisch College’s “North Star”: building robust, inclusive democracy for an increasingly multiracial society.
 
This year’s plenary speakers will include Deb Roy, Rhonda Fitzgerald, Rita Kiki Edozie, Jake Fay, Tahira Amatul-Wadud, John Sarrouf, Freddy Mutanguha, Beth-Sarah Wright, and several more.
 
Also to look forward to on the agenda:

  • 20 concurrent sessions including panels, workshops, and film screenings.
  • 4 plenary panels.
  • A plenary “hackathon” activity (which will inform a request for funding proposals!).

happiness lecture in Kyiv

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I will visit the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) in early June primarily to offer a course on civic engagement that will be a short version of the Summer Institute of Civic Studies that colleagues and I have presented regularly since 2009. While I am in Kyiv, I will also offer a public lecture and discussion on the topic: “How to Think About Happiness.”

This is the blurb from my hosts at KSE:

What is happiness, really? And how should we live a good inner life?

This public lecture will explore how major philosophical traditions have approached the question of happiness — from Aristotle’s idea of purpose, to the Buddha’s path of detachment, to the Skeptical embrace of uncertainty and compassion.

Whether you’re curious about ancient wisdom or modern meaning-making, this event will help you rethink how happiness fits into your own life and civic identity.

After a 30-minute lecture, the audience will be invited to take part in an open discussion.

Why you should attend:

  • Explore timeless and contrasting views on happiness
  • Rethink your inner life through a philosophical lens
  • Engage in a meaningful discussion with a world-class thinker
  • Join either in person or online, wherever you are

Speaker: Professor Peter Levine

  • Senior Professor at Tufts University, currently visiting at Stanford University
  • Former fellow at Harvard and Johns Hopkins Universities
  • Described as “among the leading philosophers of civic life of his generation” (Robert D. Putnam)
  • Civic activist and advisor with experience across the US and Europe

Date: June 6, 6:00 pm
Location: KSE, Rooms 1.08.1 & 1.08.2 and online via Zoom
Register here

Contact person:  Mariia Yurina, myurina@kse.org.ua
Come for the philosophy — leave with a new way to think about happiness.

Civic Engagement course in Kyiv on June 3-5

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Thanks to the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), I have the opportunity to offer a short version of our Summer Institute of Civic Studies in-person in Kyiv on June 3-5. It is open to people in the vicinity as well as KSE students. I will also offer a public talk on the theme of happiness and will post more about that once the promotional materials are ready. Meanwhile, courtesy of KSE, here is information about the civic engagement course:

Do you want to understand how societies can change for the better—and how you can help lead that change?

This exciting, hands-on course is designed for:

  • Civil society leaders and activists – current and aspiring
  • Students with a passion for politics, ethics, and making a difference

Why attend?

You’ll dive into real-world examples of civic action and gain practical tools to:

  • Organize people around a shared goal
  • Communicate across political divides
  • Respond to exclusion and injustice
  • Learn from global success stories of activism and nonviolence

What’s inside the program?

  • Simulation games like the Prisoner’s Dilemma
  • Case studies of civic movements
  • Discussions on propaganda, polarization, and dialogue
  • Lessons in nonviolent and military resistance
  • Certificate option with short reading assignments

All participants will receive a certificate upon completing the course.

This is not just a lecture—it’s an invitation to think, act, and engage.

Led by one of the world’s most prominent thinkers in civic philosophy:

Professor Peter Levine – Senior Professor at Tufts University, visiting scholar at Stanford, former fellow at Harvard & Johns Hopkins, renowned expert in civic life and democratic engagement

Dates: June 3–5, 3:00–7:00 pm each day

Location: KSE, Room 4.07

Register here

Contact: Mariia Yurina — myurina@kse.org.ua

the historical trend for discretionary federal spending

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Until today, I had not understood the trends shown in the graph above (from Aherne, Labonte, & Lynch 2024).

As a proportion of the economy, total federal spending has been fairly constant since 1962. Entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid) and defense keep the whole cost pretty stable. The cost has risen during recessions because bad times increase eligibility for entitlements. This means that the early Reagan years saw a temporary peak in total federal spending (notwithstanding Reagan’s anti-government rhetoric), and the Great Recession and COVID caused big temporary increases.

Meanwhile, federal discretionary spending quite steadily declined from 1965 and 2000. It has fluctuated since then from a lower baseline.

That means that the basket that includes highways and air traffic control, prisons and border control, diplomacy and foreign aid, agricultural subsidies, Food Stamps, etc. represents a smaller percentage of the economy than it did in the 1960s.

Looking more closely at components, we can often find anomalous patterns. For example, total federal spending on education (k12 and college, including financial aid and research) was 1 percent of GDP in 1975 and 1.1 percent in 2024, with spikes during recessions.

Since the economy has grown each decade, a shrinking proportion of GDP could still purchase more goods and services. But that has not really happened during the 21st century. Another telling graph from the same report (below) shows discretionary spending in billions of dollars, adjusted for inflation. It separates defense from non-defense spending. Until COVID hit, neither component had risen (or fallen) in real terms compared to 2005. The Obama stimulus did cause a temporary boost, but that went away. Then COVID spending and the Biden stimulus boosted non-defense spending, which has come down but remains about 25 percent higher than it was in 2019.

These graphs explain why the kinds of public goods that we expect from the national government in the United States often seem to have shrunk or deteriorated, even while the total cost and size of the federal government has remained at least constant.

These data challenge certain assumptions popular among conservatives–that federal spending has risen and that Republican presidents have cut government while in office. (By the way, Elon Musk’s recent rampage will hardly be visible on these graphs when the lines are extended into 2025. Total federal spending rose during the first quarter of 2025.)

These graphs also challenge progressives’ assumptions that government has been shrinking in the era of neoliberalism. Indeed, even discretionary domestic spending is quite a bit higher than it was in 2005 or 2012-19, when adjusted for inflation. What progressives observe is not a shrinking government but a decline in non-defense discretionary spending (as a proportion of the economy) between 1965 and 2000, which has left many national government functions weaker than they were in the mid-1900s.

Source: Aherne, Drew C., Labonte, Marc & Lynch, Megan S., “Discretionary Spending in 10 Graphs” (2024), Congressional Research Service https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48164. See also taxing and spending are more compatible with democratic values than regulation is; how public opinion on social spending has changed: a generational approach