Michael Walzer, Author at Public Seminar

Considering the triumph, and questionable uses, of the theory since the Vietnam War

All of us in the antiwar camp suddenly began talking the language of just war—though we did not know that that was what we were doing....

Democracy

The Crisis of Democracy is a Crisis of the Left

A capitalism transformed by a strong version of social democracy should be our political goal

November 13, 2018 • by Michael Walzer

It is a crisis for democracy when the left is weak and unable to mobilize its natural constituency. All I want to do today is to unpack that sentence. Why is this a crisis? Democracy requires some degree of equality, but capitalism and neo-liberal economic policies produce inequality: a steady pressure ...