The Authority File

Some political moderates are forgotten in favor of flashier revolutionaries. Others are admired as compromisers crossing the aisle in the name of the greater good. But Jacques Necker, a moderate political advisor to France, didn’t exactly receive praise for his sharp critique of the French government.

Necker’s On Executive Power in Great States took on a combative tone, unafraid to criticize the French constitution and even mock the French legislators’ self-righteousness. “Necker did not pull any punches,” Aurelian Craiutu, editor of volume, explains. “He was very aware that by espousing this critical tone, he would only consolidate his image as a lone wolf.”

In this final episode, Craiutu discusses how Necker drew disparagers from both the Jacobins and the Royalists, eventually leading to his departure from the political scene in 1790. Craiutu also delves into the life of Necker’s daughter Madame de Stael, who took after her father by becoming a prominent political theorist and a real thorn in Napoleon’s side.

How much power is too much? For the executive branch of government, there must be enough restraint to prevent authoritarianism, and enough power to avoid becoming little more than an ornamental symbol.

Popular political thought in the 1700s centered on the legislative branch, but Swiss-born French political advisor Jacques Necker believed that the executive branch was the key to a functional government. In contrast to the French Constitution of 1791, which greatly diminished the king’s power, Necker wrote that the legislative and executive branches should share the representation of the people, hold equal jurisdiction, and interlace their powers—not separate them.

In this third episode, Aurelian Craiutu, the editor of Necker’s On Executive Power in Great States, discusses Necker’s unique vision for France’s executive branch as the “soul of the commonwealth” during a time of social unrest and eventual revolt against the monarchy. Craiutu also speaks to where Necker drew his innovative ideas: the English government structure and the American constitution.

The names that make it into the history books are often known for their courage, intelligence, or ingenuity. They might push society toward a different political, social, or economic system. Big changes go down in the history books. Patience and moderation don’t always.

Jacques Necker, the 18th-century Swiss banker turned French economic advisor, was decidedly moderate. “He never ran after systematic novelties,” Aurelian Craiutu of Indiana University, Bloomington explains. “He tried to strike a balance between reverence for the past and necessary reforms, and it is here I would say that the core of his moderation lies: Necker was a defender of monarchy, but he was not a defender of absolute monarchy. He understood the importance of constitutional monarchy.”

In this second episode, Craiutu, the editor of Necker’s On Executive Power in Great States, discusses Necker’s moderate beliefs, and his seemingly radical decision to make the French budget public for the first time in history.

Guillotines. Marie Antoinette. Les Mis. Longstanding pop culture references aside, the French Revolution’s political and social impact on the world is still felt today. Though historians debate its causes, many point to the American Revolution’s influence as a starting point for France’s new republic. But every revolution needs a spark, and a little-known figure today, Jacques Necker, played a significant part in igniting the cries of vive la France! Aurelian Craiutu of Indiana University, Bloomington believes that though Necker’s role as a financial advisor for the French monarchy cannot be understated, his views on political thought and governance—particularly on the balance of powers—hold their own relevance even today. “Everyone knew of Necker during his lifetime as a rich man and as an ambitious man, but very few knew about Necker as a political thinker … it has taken a long time for his reputation as a political thinker to be consolidated.” Sponsored by: Liberty Fund

Generative. It’s a word that crops up throughout this week’s conversation on scholarly podcasting. For Hannah McGregor, it’s one of the things she finds most fulfilling about producing Secret Feminist Agenda—the way interactions with listeners and peer reviewers and the podcast’s guests can build something greater than the sum of its parts. Hannah and Siobhan McMenemy talk through what’s next for the Amplify Podcast Network and for the final season of Secret Feminist Agenda. Sponsored by: Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Though it’s difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel, the COVID-19 pandemic will eventually end. After months of upheaval, the potential for major changes in our health care, government, and education systems will be left in coronavirus’ wake. But what transformations will be permanent? Linda Van Keuren of Georgetown Medical, Sally Gibson of Missouri Western State, and Kat McGrath of the University of British Columbia have found the positives amidst waves of budget cuts and campus closures. Reliable teleworking, robust online services, and stronger partnerships between publishers and libraries are some of the adaptations they’d like to see stick around. In the final episode of this four-part series, Van Keuren, Gibson, and McGrath discuss the future of interlibrary loans for ebook content and how job descriptions for librarians will ultimately change. As university heads pull purse strings taut, they chat about how usage and demographic data could help mold library budgets moving forward. Van Keuren notes: “It’s much more meaningful with administrators and finance people to have that demographic information, as we have to make some tough decisions potentially in the months and years to come.” Sponsored by: SAGE Publishing https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/home

How can academic podcasters earn credit for their work within the academy? What would it take to build a distribution or discovery service for academic podcasts? How would that fit into, compete with or live alongside the existing podcast discovery services? Siobhan McMenemy and Hannah McGregor talk about what’s next for Secret Feminist Agenda now that the peer review process has wrapped up and the final season is coming to a close. They talk about their ongoing project, the Amplify Podcast Network, and how they hope it will give libraries, scholars—and everyone else—easier access to a range of scholarly podcasts. Sponsored by: Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Being an academic librarian during a global pandemic means rolling with the punches. Whether it be budget cuts or temperature checks, librarians are adjusting in real time to the rapid changes needed to support to virtual learning. Sally Gibson of Missouri Western State found that the sudden reliance on digital content and services helped her staff get into their patrons’ shoes. “I think the one positive of having everyone working from home is that we were really able to find out what it’s like to be a distant student who’s off campus. We were able to troubleshoot some of the issues that they’d run into, or just have the overall experience of what they are going through.” In this third episode, Linda Van Keuren of Georgetown Medical and Kat McGrath of the University of British Columbia join Gibson to discuss the lack of student staff, loss of their physical space, and the appeal of point-of-need content delivery. In this new world of curbside pickup and socially-distant study, all solutions are welcome in today’s library. Sponsored by: SAGE Publishing

Like gathering storm clouds, the looming fall semester is on every student, teacher, and librarian’s mind. Articles, webinars, and discussion threads have exploded around the singular question: What’s your fall reopening plan? Linda Van Keuren of Georgetown Medical, Sally Gibson of Missouri Western State, and Kat McGrath of the University of British Columbia have adjusted their services and physical space to give students what they need quickly and efficiently. Whether it’s a closed-stack model, one-person-per-study-room rules, or ramping up virtual chat services, there will be little dilly-dallying among the stacks this September. However, they predict after years of trying to shepherd students into their libraries, it will be a strange 180 to ask their patrons not to linger. In this second episode, Van Keuren, Gibson, and McGrath break down their own institutions’ fall reopening plans, how the library has adapted to support student and faculty, and perhaps most importantly, how the heck they are feeling about all this rapid change. Sponsored by: SAGE Publishing

This episode dives into peer reviewing a podcast, and how a project that challenges the norms of scholarly publishing might just challenge the norms of peer review too. Hannah McGregor of Simon Fraser University and Siobhan McMenemy of Wilfrid Laurier University Press explore why they rethought peer review and how it worked for Secret Feminist Agenda, McGregor’s podcast. Secret Feminist Agenda, served as the test case for Wilfrid Laurier University Press’s attempt to provide podcasts with the same scrutiny and rigor the press brings to its academic books. But in the case of a podcast, what does peer review look like? How do you think about improving the scholarly aspects—and the production, sustainability, and audience—of a podcast? This four-episode series discusses all of those questions and more, while this episode really zeroes in on the “how” and “why” and “what it brings to the work” of peer review. Sponsored by: Wilfrid Laurier University Press