Democracy Archives - Page 51 of 97

Blue Monday

Blue Monday: Monday Morning Blues

An introduction to my new column

February 5, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Readers of Public Seminar will know that in the past couple of years I have become a regular and indeed somewhat relentless contributor of political essays on the dangers of Trumpism and the challenges to liberal democracy. I have greatly enjoyed working with the PS staff, and have been especially happy to collaborate with ...

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Religious Accommodations and “Equal But Different” Citizenship

Rogers Smith

February 5, 2018 • by Public Seminar

The Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life (IRCPL) presents Populism and Religion lecture series from Rogers Smith (Associate Dean for the Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science at UPenn). A note from Jean Cohen, project organizer: Everyone seems to be writing on populism these days, which is unsurprising given the ...

Religious Accommodations and “Equal But Different” Citizenship

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Religious Populisms, Right and Left, in Europe and the Americas

Jose Casanova

February 3, 2018 • by Public Seminar

The Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life presents the Populism and Religion lecture series from Jose Casanova (Professor in the Departments of Sociology and Theology at Georgetown University). A note from Jean Cohen, project organizer: Everyone seems to be writing on populism these days, which is unsurprising given the global rise ...

Religious Populisms, Right and Left, in Europe and the Americas

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A Post on Friendship, Love and Power

On the Power of the Powerless in Dark Times

February 2, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

“There are a great many things which cannot withstand the implacable, bright light of the constant presence of others on the public scene; there, only what is considered to be relevant, worthy of being seen and heard, can be tolerated…there are very relevant matters which can survive only in the ...

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How Democracies Die and How They Live

January 29, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Over the past year a number of writers, myself included, have conducted an ongoing debate about the relationship between Trump, Trumpism, and authoritarianism. The debate has shed some real light on an important topic: the state of and challenges to democracy in the U.S. Yet while some illumination has broken through ...

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Courts Rethinking Gerrymandering

Pennsylvania Supreme Court throws out congressional districts drawn by republicans

January 28, 2018 • by John Lawrence

Whenever a discussion of the origins and causes of contemporary partisanship takes place, it doesn’t take long for the subject to turn to the pernicious topic of gerrymandering: drawing legislative district lines to enhance the probability that one party will win a larger number of seats than the partisan vote ...

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A Gray Post on a Sunny Friday Afternoon

Democracy and the Social Condition

January 26, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

It’s sunny this morning here in New York. Nonetheless, from this day forward, and retroactively, I am going to label my weekly posts “Gray Friday.” I am doing so because all of my posts have been informed by my appreciation of the beauty of the gray, and because I see ...

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Millions March Throughout Country on Inauguration Anniversary

Hundreds of thousands in New York City

January 26, 2018 • by Jo Freeman

It was called a Women’s March, and it took place on the first anniversary of the massive women’s march on Washington after Trump’s inauguration. But women and women’s rights were only one of several themes. The most prevalent theme was opposition to everything Trump has done and said, before and ...

Millions March Throughout Country on Inauguration Anniversary

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Why Liz Watson’s Progressive Endorsements Matter

A look into Indiana’s 9th district

January 25, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Fighting for democratic ideals and for social justice must include principled thought and careful strategic calculation. In this post, Jeff Isaac demonstrates how this is done, as he links his political thought to political action in the race to unseat a particularly bad Republican Congressman, Trey Hollingsworth. -Jeff Goldfarb For well ...

Why Liz Watson’s Progressive Endorsements Matter

Education

Milo in Berkeley

Further reflections on the renewed academic free speech debate

January 23, 2018 • by Michael Weinman

What light if any, I will ask here, does this claim shine on the larger discourse about academic free speech, specifically as that discussion has come to focus, for historical and strategic reasons, on UC-Berkeley. The proximal cause of Berkeley’s centrality is the shutdown of an intended speech by Milo ...

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“They’re Not Sending Their Best”

The problem with the merit narrative in U.S. immigration

January 22, 2018 • by Sarah Sklaw

Gathered atop a boulder in Central Park the weekend after the Trump administration rescinded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), activists with the Cosecha movement channeled their frustration through a battle-worn bullhorn. Leading an estimated 3,000 protesters, Cosecha organizers marched from the Trump International Hotel in Columbus Circle, past the New ...

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The Long Shadow

The legacy of the Moynihan Report and the limits of postwar liberalism

January 20, 2018 • by Brian Caterino

In Rochester NY, where I live, a recent poverty initiative has been proposed to address some of the most deeply entrenched poverty areas of this country. History casts its long shadow over the understanding of poverty evinced by these initiatives. Short on proposals to empower the community, the reading lists ...