Democracy Archives - Page 41 of 97

Blue Monday

The Whole World Is Watching?

Thoughts on police violence in the streets of Bucharest and the streets of Portland, Charlottesville, Ferguson, and Chicago 1968

August 13, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

“I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues.” -Duke Ellington This past Friday night, August 10, a major demonstration was held at Piata Victorei in downtown Bucharest to protest the widespread corruption of the SPD government, led by Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă, and by the ...

Feature

Thoughts on Violence in the Streets of Bucharest and on the Civic Defense of Romanian Democracy

August 12, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

This past Friday night, August 10, a major demonstration was held at Piata Victorei in downtown Bucharest to protest the widespread corruption of the SPD government, led by Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă, and by the party’s leader and power-behind-the-throne, Liviu Dragnea, himself convicted of corruption charges and separately for 2012 ...

Thoughts on Violence in the Streets of Bucharest and on the Civic Defense of Romanian Democracy

Feature

Answering the Question: What is Socialism?

Gray reflections on a surprising turn in U.S. political culture.

August 10, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

Last year, I quite critically raised the question: What Do You Mean When You Use the Term Neo Liberalism? I was, and still am, concerned that the term too often explains too much with too little, and enervates progressive politics. I worry that all the problems of our times are too quickly ...

Answering the Question: What is Socialism?

Feature

The Electoral Success of the Radical Right in Europe

Why are the Radical Right better at “capitalizing” on ‘Populism’ than the Radical Left?

August 7, 2018 • by Valerio Alfonso Bruno and James F. Downes

Contemporary Radical Right parties have tended to outperform Radical Left parties electorally in Europe, particularly in national parliamentary (legislative) elections during the post-economic crisis period. However, it is not clear why this is the case. Given the context of growing dissatisfaction towards the democratic establishment in which contemporary populism developed, ...

The Electoral Success of the Radical Right in Europe

Blue Monday

Compared to What? A Very Dark Thought about November

(and an electrifying and enduring song of resistance)

August 6, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington Last Thursday, August 2, the daily Lie Fest otherwise known as the Sarah Huckabee Sanders White House press briefing featured the country’s five top intelligence officials, who individually and collectively announced to the world that ...

Compared to What? A Very Dark Thought about November

Feature

Gustavo Petro and the Colombian Populist Moment

An interview with Luciana Cadahia

August 2, 2018 • by Gerardo Muñoz

Luciana Cadahia (Ph.D. Unidad Autónoma de Madrid [UAM]) is one of the most original voices in contemporary Latin American political thought. Although her academic work has focused on debates in political theory and the tradition of German Idealism, her recent interventions on populism and democratic theory are charged with a theoretical depth that ...

Gustavo Petro and the Colombian Populist Moment

Uncategorized

Right on Ron

Remembering the former California Congressman

July 31, 2018 • by John Lawrence

Ron Dellums was elected to Congress during my first few months in Berkeley, where I was studying for a Ph.D. in American History. For someone who had grown up very involved in electoral politics, and then had his commitment soured by the horror of Vietnam, Dellums provided an extraordinary transition ...

Feature

I Don’t Really Care, Do You?

Foreign influence in the U.S. elections

July 31, 2018 • by Sanford Schram

We should call it the summer of Helsinki: that time after Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin met in secret in Finland’s capital to express commitment to work together on many as yet undisclosed initiatives. Their cabal was hidden in plain sight in an outrageous press conference where Trump expressed preference for ...

Feature

Reflections on the Development of a Post-truth Regime

Donald Trump and the politically correct

July 27, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

"The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas; i.e., the class which is the ruling material force in society is at the same time the ruling intellectual force.” Marx and Engels, The German Ideology We sociologists know that each idea, each creative expression, each truth claim appears ...

Reflections on the Development of a Post-truth Regime

Feature

Another Day, Another Step Towards Authoritarianism

Trump spins Russia’s potential interference in 2018 midterms in favor of Democrats

July 24, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Yesterday I posted a column that sought to make sense of the current discussion of “Trump and treason.” The point, which I have reiterated repeatedly over the past two years: whatever might be true of the not-yet disclosed connections between Putin, Trump, and the Trump campaign, everything about Trump, including ...

Another Day, Another Step Towards Authoritarianism

Feature

The Class of ’74: Congress after Watergate and the Roots of Partisanship

An excerpt from John A. Lawrence’s latest book

July 24, 2018 • by John Lawrence

“A Different Kind of Congress” The Class [of ‘74] brought more than support for reform to archaic House [of Representatives] procedures: it brought generational change, a merging of the external activism of the streets -- the campus, civil rights, and anti-war movements, the battles for women’s rights and consumer protection, the ...

The Class of ’74: Congress after Watergate and the Roots of Partisanship

Uncategorized

CFP: Media, Technology, and Democracy in Historical Context

A Media & Democracy Workshop in New York City

July 23, 2018 • by James Kirwan

Introduction If you consult recent headlines, the news media is in crisis, and the problems are manifold: disruptive changes to media technology, the spread of misleading news, and anonymous harassment of public figures are causing serious concerns about the quality and trajectory of our democracy and the place of the news ...