North America Archives - Page 21 of 22

Democracy

Could Populism Actually Be Good for Democracy?

A wave of populist revolts has led many to lose faith in the wisdom of people power. But such eruptions are essential to the vitality of modern politics.

February 25, 2019 • by James Miller

This article was originally published in The Guardian on October 11 2018. Observers have understandable qualms about political programs that are alarmingly illiberal, yet obviously democratic, in that most citizens support them. In Poland and Hungary, democratically elected ruling parties attack Muslim migrants for undermining Christian identity. In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte ...

Democracy

Towards a World Wide Committee of Democratic Correspondence

Democracy Seminar 2.0

February 15, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

Such a grand imagination informs the making of Democracy Seminar 2.0, the revival of an initially clandestine New School seminar of the 1980s and early 1990s that provided a place for Eastern European dissidents to reimagine their world. As was the case in the earlier seminar, we are now following ...

Feature

After the ‘American Dream’?

How Mexico Responds to U.S. Deportations

February 6, 2019 • by Guadalupe Chavez

“Fixing” the “illegal” immigration “problem” has been at the forefront of Donald Trump’s rhetoric from the first weeks he took office until today. Despite Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric, undocumented persons across the U.S. are taking to the streets in protest, demanding that politicians uphold their rights, and seeking sanctuary ...

North America

All Votes Must Be Counted, or Why Concessions of Electoral Defeat Are Irrelevant

November 10, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Republicans are now very angry that some races they thought they had won are still too close to call. Being egged on by aspirational fascist demagogues like Donald Trump and Rick Scott, they are now condemning Democrats for disturbing the electoral process. “Enemies of the people” and “unethical liberals” we ...

All Votes Must Be Counted, or Why Concessions of Electoral Defeat Are Irrelevant

Feature

A Few Quick Take-Aways

Reflecting on the 2018 midterm election

November 9, 2018 • by John Lawrence

A short blog on the election; it will take a little while to fully digest the results. But some results seem clear and important to note. Obviously, the major news of the day is the Democratic resurgence in the House, with Democrats winning back the majority they lost so spectacularly in ...

Democracy

The Legitimacy of the Supreme Court?

The system is working and that is the problem

October 8, 2018 • by Ajay Singh Chaudhary

We Americans are “constitutional fetishists” in the apt phrase of the lesser-known mid-20th century critical theorist of law and economy, Franz Neumann. We tend to think that a particular order of state institutions -- for example, our current incarnation of the separation-of-powers -- embodies the essence of democracy instead of looking ...

Feature

Brett Kavanaugh Unhinged? Unlikely

Reflections on his testimony and on the need to resist his candidacy

September 29, 2018 • by Peter Dreier

Some reporters, bloggers, and pundits think that during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Judge Brett Kavanaugh just “lost it” and became "unhinged." I disagree. I have no doubt that he was angry and emotional, but his belligerent and partisan comments were also very strategic and calculated. He was not out ...

North America

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 ...

North America

Two Hearty Cheers for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The congressional primary win is a bright spot for democrats amongst the slew of recent political losses

June 27, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

This morning as I drank my coffee I watched Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on TV, listened to her speak, and read with pleasure the numerous reports of her primary victory over incumbent and party boss Joe Crowley in New York City’s 14th Congressional District. I was exultant. And I am exultant still. So much ...

Two Hearty Cheers for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

North America

CFP: Remaking American Political History

June 6-7, 2019 Purdue University West Lafayette, IN

June 18, 2018 • by Claire Potter

American political history is thriving. Over the past two decades, an interdisciplinary examination of American political history has produced scholarship that explores the expansive spheres in which Americans engage in politics and relate to one another and the state. Now is the time to build on momentum in the field ...

CFP: Remaking American Political History

North America

Damon Linker is Wrong About Liberals

Here’s why

April 3, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Damon Linker is a respected writer, columnist for The Week, and editor (University of Pennsylvania Press). He is also a Facebook friend of mine. I enjoy his columns, and often exchange comments with him. He has offered strong and admirable criticisms of Trump, and of the ways the Republican party and ...

Feature

Bannon at Booth

A conflict between principle and strategy?

March 15, 2018 • by Michael Weinman

Bannon, surely, needs no introduction, nor need we long belabor the reasons why the decision to invite him to speak at the University of Chicago proved controversial. Still, let’s note that in a letter of protest signed by over 100 members of the University of Chicago faculty, the rationale for objecting to ...