Salvatore Babones
Born (1969-10-05) October 5, 1969
New Jersey
CitizenshipAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Montevallo (BS)
Johns Hopkins University (MA, MSE, Ph.D.)
Scientific career
FieldsSociology
InstitutionsUniversity of Sydney

Salvatore Babones (born October 5, 1969) is an American sociologist, and an associate professor at the University of Sydney.

Biography

Babones received a B.S. in sociology from University of Montevallo in 1991, M.A. in Sociology in 1997, M.S.E in Mathematical Sciences in 2002, and a Ph.D. in Sociology in 2003 from Johns Hopkins University.[1]

From 2003 to 2008 he was a professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh; and since 2008, at the University of Sydney.[1] He has also been a visiting associate professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (2015) and a visiting scholar at Academia Sinica in Taipei (2015).[1]

Work and views

Babones focuses on the "political sociology of democracy, economic development in post-socialist transition economies and quantitative methods for cross-national comparisons".[2][3]

BRICS Economies

Salvatore Babones and Hartmut Elsenhans in their book BRICS or Bust? Escaping the Middle-Income Trap compares the social, economic, and political trajectories of BRICS countries over the year. They argue that these countries are stuck in a middle-income trap, which was caused by the inequalities generated during their early development; this caused consumption to shift inefficiently towards luxury goods, preventing the continued growth in mass income. Babones concludes that BRICS counties can catch up with high-income countries only if their political leaders pursue growth strategies that benefit the entire population.[4][5]

Political scientist BM Jain found the book to be a "must read" — it was a "distinctive contribution" to the understanding of BRICS economies.[6]

American Tianxia

In his 2017 book, American Tianxia: Chinese money, American power, and the end of history, Babones questions the narrative of the 21st century being a Chinese Century. He argues that the Chinese concept of Tianxia is most suitable to describe the tremendous influence of the United States in International politics. The American Tianxia is a global club that elites worldwide want to join. The United States has the world's largest economy, a powerful military, and the world's reserve currency. According to him, this centrality of the United States in International affairs would prevent China from ever dominating it.[7][8]

United States and Trump

In 2018, Babones published The New Authoritarianism: Trump, Populism, and the Tyranny of Experts on Donald Trump and his administration.[9] Lacking in sources and notes, he did not intend it to be an academic monograph but rather a political screed.[10] Babones welcomed Trump's populist approach to governance as a dissent against the usual "tyranny of unelected authoritarian experts" in liberal democracies. Rejecting allegations of authoritarianism, he found Trump's administration effective and credited Trump with strengthening democratic ideals by returning power to the electorate.[10][11][9] On the overall, populism was a legitimate political position in liberal democracy.[12]

Markus Heide of Uppsala University found Babones' "apologetic approach" to ignore the anti-democratic rhetoric of Trump and his supporters.[12] Dan Glazebrook, reviewing for socialist newspaper The Morning Star, found the work to be an exercise in "Trumpian obfuscation".[13] However, the book was favorably received in conservative media: Janet Albrechtsen, reviewing for The Australian, commended Babones for an "overdue ... corrective about populism";[9] it went on to feature in the 'Best [Books] on Politics 2018' by the Wall Street Journal.[11]

Babones has since held the January 6 United States Capitol attack to be a "mostly peaceful protest";[14] he argued that Joe Biden was still a bigger threat to democracy on account of being supported by the press.[15]

India

In September 2022, Babones criticized the democracy indices by Freedom House, V-Dem Institute, and Economist Intelligence Unit for their decision to downgrade India while under Narendra Modi's premiership and called for a retraction; noting their evidence to be flawed and "wildly disproportionate", he blamed the intellectuals who were surveyed for not being objective in their evaluations.[16][17] Two months later, in a conclave arranged by India Today, speaking on the same locus, Babones accused the Indian intellectuals of being "anti-India and anti-Modi as a class" in remarks that were widely shared in the social media.[18][19]

Immigrant students in Australia

His research into Australian universities' dependence on international (particularly Chinese) students drove political debates in the country.[20][21][22]

Books

  • Babones, S. (2009). The International Structure of Income: Its Implications for Economic Growth. Saarbruecken: VDM Verlag Dr Muller. ISBN 978-3639101591
  • Esteva, G., Babones, S., Babcicky, P. (2013). The Future of Development: A Radical Manifesto. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.ISBN 978-1447301080
  • Babones, S. (2014). Methods for Quantitative Macro-Comparative Research. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.ISBN 978-1412974950
  • Babones, S. (2015). Sixteen for '16: A Progressive Agenda for a Better America. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.ISBN 978-1447324409
  • Elsenhans, H., and Babones, S. (2017). BRICS or Bust? Escaping the Middle-Income Trap. Stanford: Stanford University Press.ISBN 978-0804799898
  • Babones, S. (2017). American Tianxia: Chinese Money, American Power, and the End of History. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.ISBN 978-1447336808
  • Babones, S. (2018). The New Authoritarianism: Trump, Populism, and the Tyranny of Experts. Cambridge, UK: Polity.ISBN 978-1509533091
  • Babones, S. (2021). Australia's Universities: Can They Reform? Brisbane: Ocean Reeve Publishing.ASIN B09N8MTJGH

References

  1. 1 2 3 Biography on official homepage
  2. ↑ "Babones, Salvatore". SAGE India. 2023-03-02. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  3. ↑ "Salvatore Babones". The University of Sydney. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  4. ↑ Bhoi, Barendra Kumar (2 September 2019). "Can BRICS countries escape the middle-income trap?". Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies. 12 (3): 293–296. doi:10.1080/17520843.2019.1615970. S2CID 197830200.
  5. ↑ Elsenhans, Hartmut; Babones, Salvatore (2020). BRICS or Bust?. doi:10.1515/9781503604919. ISBN 978-1-5036-0491-9. S2CID 241814048.
  6. ↑ Jain, B.M.; Elsenhans, Hartmut; Babones, Salvatore (2017). "Review of BRICS or Bust?: Escaping the Middle-Income Trap, Elsenhans Hartmut, Babones Salvatore". Indian Journal of Asian Affairs. 30 (1/2): 97–99. JSTOR 26465821.
  7. ↑ Grell-Brisk, Marilyn (3 September 2019). "American Tianxia: Chinese Money, American Power, and the End of History". Journal of World-Systems Research. 25 (2): 503–507. doi:10.5195/jwsr.2019.936. S2CID 203107710.
  8. ↑ P. Sempa, Francis (2017-07-26). "American Tianxia: What If This Isn't the Chinese Century?". The Diplomat. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  9. 1 2 3 Albrechtsen, Janet (21 November 2018). "Trump takes on the experts to save democracy". The Australian.
  10. 1 2 "Interview with Salvatore Babones on his book "The New Authoritarianism: Trump, Populism, and the Tyranny of Experts"". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 2022-11-05.
  11. 1 2 Swaim, Barton (2018-12-07). "Books on Politics: Best of 2018". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-02-19.
  12. 1 2 Heide, Markus (2022). "Populism and the Politics of the Media Spectacle in the US: The Imagery of the US-Mexico Border". In Cananau, Iulian; Thalen, Peder (eds.). Populism, Democracy, and the Humanities: Interdisciplinary Explorations and Critical Enquiries. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 145–146. ISBN 978-1-5381-6091-6.
  13. ↑ "'Trumpian obfuscation at its finest'". Morning Star. 2018-11-13. Retrieved 2022-11-05.
  14. ↑ Towell, Kishor Napier-Raman, Noel (2022-08-01). "Former prime minister Tony Abbott to speak on Indian democracy at Centre for Independent Studies". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2022-12-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ↑ Boone, Gloria M.; Taylor, Mary Anne; Gallant, Linda (May 2023). "International Reactions to the Capitol Attack of January 6th: A Media Frames Analysis". American Behavioral Scientist. 67 (6): 784–806. doi:10.1177/00027642221091214. S2CID 248647298.
  16. ↑ "Exclusive | Western Analysts Insult India for Petty Partisan Political Game: Salvatore Babones to News18". News18. 2022-09-16. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
  17. ↑ Babones, Salvatore (2022-09-14). "Why India's democracy ranking should be taken with a grain of salt". ThePrint. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
  18. ↑ Bhardwaj, Ananya (2022-11-07). "Sociologist who called Indian intellectuals 'anti-India' listed as 'foreign agent' in US, Australia". ThePrint. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  19. ↑ Usmani, Aban (8 November 2022). "Meet Salvatore Babones, the American academic who called Indian intellectuals 'anti-India'". Newslaundry.
  20. ↑ "Australian universities risk catastrophe due to over-reliance on Chinese students, expert warns". www.abc.net.au. 2019-08-20. Retrieved 2021-02-19.
  21. ↑ Hondros, Nathan (2020-06-28). "WA universities face 'day of reckoning' with risk Chinese students might never return". WAtoday. Retrieved 2021-02-19.
  22. ↑ "Over-reliance on Chinese students putting Australian universities at risk, report warns". SBS News. Retrieved 2021-02-19.
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