Democracy Archives - Page 12 of 56

Have We Scholars of Anti-Semitism Failed to Facilitate Empathy for Its Victims?

What we can learn from scholars of anti-Black racism

October 18, 2023 • by Magda Teter

For almost a century, most of us have focused on dissecting anti-Semitic ideas and ideologies. But—with the very important exception of those studying the Holocaust—we have not paid enough attention to the impact these ideas, images, and actions have on Jews as human beings....

Have We Scholars of Anti-Semitism Failed to Facilitate Empathy for Its Victims?

Middle East & North Africa

Darkness Falls on Gaza

In an excerpt from Shell-Shocked, a journalist reports on life in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge

October 18, 2023 • by Mohammed Omer

Here in Gaza City, the electricity was gone; it was dark everywhere. The water supply was foul, food was rancid, and fear permeated the summer night. ...

Middle East & North Africa

Sleepwalkers

We are once again proving ourselves to be the dupes of violence

October 18, 2023 • by James Dodd

My deepest fear—and not only for Israel and Palestine, but for many other parts of the world where political responsibility is being undermined by the narcotics of outrage and resentment—is that our political life is currently locked in a downward spiral thanks to which options appear to be more and ...

Activism

Reflections on the War between Israel and Hamas

Voices of sanity are in danger of being drowned out by the rhetoricians of all-out war

October 16, 2023 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

For a long time many civilians, Israeli and Palestinian, have suffered, as their leaders have failed to bring about a civil, peaceful, and at least modestly just end to a long and violent conflict. I feel for them all, and particularly for the children who have grown up knowing nothing ...

Reflections on the War between Israel and Hamas

Capitalism

How Mary Mattingly’s Floating Barge Tackled Food Deserts in New York City

What foraging can teach Americans about solving national food insecurity

September 27, 2023 • by Emma Slack-Jørgensen

Mattingly’s Swale came before the foraging boom, but it suggests that foraging may hold a permanent place in New York. Foraging is not just another fashionable affectation, but a path to addressing the deep-rooted issues embedded in our current food systems. Swale represents how our understanding of food access is ...

How Mary Mattingly’s Floating Barge Tackled Food Deserts in New York City

Democracy

Is Masih Alinejad Really the Voice of the Iranian Women’s Movement?

Or is the women’s rights activist the new face of the U.S. war machine?

September 13, 2023 • by Setareh Shohadaei

Who is Masih Alinejad, and how did she rise to such a position of power and influence in the United States?...

Is Masih Alinejad Really the Voice of the Iranian Women’s Movement?

Democracy

The Women’s Movement in Iran One Year after the Death of Mahsa Amini

A fragile triumph

September 12, 2023 • by Kian Tajbakhsh

As we approach the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death in September 2022, what can we expect for the future of Iranian women’s civil rights?...

The Women’s Movement in Iran One Year after the Death of Mahsa Amini

Europe & Central Asia

“Deep political changes are only a matter of time”

Correspondence with Vladimir Kara-Murza

June 26, 2023 • by Anastasia Shteinert, Vladimir Kara-Murza and Alex Strelnikov

Just before his sentencing, journalists Anastasia Shteinert and Alex Strelnikov sent questions to Kara-Murza through the Russian prison postal system...

“Deep political changes are only a matter of time”

Democracy

The 2023 Turkish Elections—A Roller Coaster Ride between Hope and Despair

The opponents of Erdogan feel “ghosted” by their leaders

June 14, 2023 • by Selin Bengi Gümrükçü

About a week after the runoff of the Turkish presidential elections in 2023, I had a vivid dream. In this dream, the elections extended to a third round, scheduled for a few weeks later, and the dates for diaspora voting were yet to be released. As a diaspora voter myself, ...

The 2023 Turkish Elections—A Roller Coaster Ride between Hope and Despair

Europe & Central Asia

“The Symbolic Equivalent of a Pogrom” in Poland

The attack on historian Jan Grabowski broke the psychological barrier limiting public anti-Semitic actions

June 13, 2023 • by Irena Grudzińska-Gross

Since there are no longer any groupings of recognizable Jews in Poland, the assault on Jan Grabowski is the symbolic equivalent of a pogrom. The otherwise inexplicable destruction of property forms part of the pogrom repertoire. ...

“The Symbolic Equivalent of a Pogrom” in Poland

Democracy

How Democracies Transform, Fast and Slow

A response to John Keane

June 5, 2023 • by Ferenc Laczó

For all its acuity, John Keane’s theory of democide risks confusing democratic degradation with a transformation of the political debate. Not only that, it fails to account for the radicalization of authoritarian systems once democracy has been killed. ...

How Democracies Transform, Fast and Slow

Europe & Central Asia

The Voice of Ukraine

“Break your heavy chains and water with the tyrants’ blood the freedom you have gained”

May 10, 2023 • by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed

For many in Ukraine, the war is not simply about the territory: it is about freedom and democracy, about the memory of identity eradication perpetrated by Russia....