Democracy Archives - Page 32 of 55

Democracy

Scotland Is Stuck

The Scottish National Party is more popular and powerful than ever – but also boxed in to a constitutional stalemate with the UK

September 3, 2020 • by Simon Jones

------------- “Stick with it Scotland,” say the billboards in Glasgow. It’s a slogan applying both to the continued need to keep wearing masks and to practice social distancing, as the country enters a phase of localised measures to restrict movement in the ongoing Covid-19 crisis after a comprehensive lockdown in spring and ...

Democracy

Do They Deliver for You?

Postage stamps and the paradox of democracy

September 3, 2020 • by Laura Goldblatt and Richard Handler

Those were the good old days, right? Looking at those stamps from the perspective of our present public health crisis—when Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump crony who appears to be hamstringing the United States Postal Service (USPS) so that people will not be able to use the mail to ...

Democracy

Joe Biden’s Message of Healing

September 2, 2020 • by Robert Ivie

Joe Biden went to Pittsburgh on August 31 to make a campaign speech condemning the violence Donald Trump incites. That was the immediate reason for speaking out, but it was also an occasion to speak up for a better America, one that most citizens can affirm and from which no ...

Democracy

What We Can All Learn from the Lebanese

September 1, 2020 • by Roxana Toma

Lebanon has been crippled by long-running crises for decades. The country endured a devastating 15-year civil war and has often been caught in the crossfire of regional conflicts. In October 2019, people in at least 70 towns across Lebanon protested against government corruption, an incompetent political system, its austerity measures, ...

North America

The Rotten Alliance of Liberals and Neocons Will Likely Shape U.S. Foreign Policy for Years to Come

Trump’s rise led to unity in the interventionist ranks opposing his foreign policy

September 1, 2020 • by Marshall Auerback and James Carden

The mobilization appears to be having an impact. More recently, "more than 100 former staff of [recently deceased Senator John] McCain's congressional offices and campaigns also endorsed Biden for president," according to NBC News and dozens of former staffers from Senator Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. That GOP support comes in addition to the more ...

The Rotten Alliance of Liberals and Neocons Will Likely Shape U.S. Foreign Policy for Years to Come

Journalism

Believing Donald Trump’s Lies is a Choice

How Trump’s blizzard of falsehoods enables white racism

August 31, 2020 • by John Stoehr

Dale's work is different categorically from fact-checking. Anyone can do that. Dale, however, makes the lies the story. Moreover, he permits his methodical reporting to culminate in a moral conclusion, one vital to the healthy functioning of a free and open republic. "Trump is a serial liar," Dale said. Before I go ...

Believing Donald Trump’s Lies is a Choice

Democracy

Fascism or Caesarism?

How Napoleon, not Hitler, exemplifies an enduring threat to modern democracies

August 27, 2020 • by David A. Bell

As a historian, my first reaction has been to answer the question with a resounding “no.” My professional training has led me to think of fascism as a specific historical phenomenon, largely limited to the period from the early 1920s to the end of World War II, and built around ...

North America

What America Got Wrong About COVID-19–and What We Can Learn from France and Italy

Institutional fragmentation and a lack of national solidarity have derailed the pandemic response

August 26, 2020 • by Isabel Perera and Sidney Tarrow

On Tuesday, August 11, just as Florida was setting a new daily record for deaths from Covid-19, Billy Woods, sheriff of Marion County in north central Florida, banned all of his employees, with a few exceptions, from wearing masks. “This is no longer a debate,” he told his staff, explaining how ...

What America Got Wrong About COVID-19–and What We Can Learn from France and Italy

Economy

How to Reopen the American Economy Now

We don’t have to choose between a depression and tens of thousands of avoidable deaths

August 24, 2020 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

And, of course, economists are on the case. In my favorite economic paper on the COVID-19 economy, Harvard University economist James Stock describes a new family of epidemiological-economic models that provide guidance about how best to reopen the economy. Here are his smart reopening requirements: promote collective behaviors to stop the spread of the ...

Democracy

Now Is Not the Time to Polemicize Against A Broad Anti-Trump Coalition

August 21, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

The next three months will be crucial for the fate of democracy in the U.S. And the outcome of the November election will determine whether the American system of government can furnish even minimally decent and effective responses to the pressing challenges of COVID-19 and racial and economic injustice. As more ...

Democracy

Memory Politics in an Illiberal Regime

Hungary’s new Trianon memorial

August 20, 2020 • by Szabolcs László

As problematic monuments are being brought down in recent anti-racist protests around the world, Hungary, in contrast, saw the completion of a deeply flawed and tone-deaf memorial. Built for the centennial of the Trianon Peace Treaty, the “Memorial of National Unity” in front of the Hungarian Parliament has a minimalist style ...

Democracy

Is Some Version of Our Future Now Playing Out on the Streets of Minsk?

August 17, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

A contest over the legitimacy of an election and the illegitimacy of an autocrat is currently playing out on the streets of Minsk and throughout Belarus. I have no particular expertise about Belarus and nothing profound to say about this conflict. Belarus’s longtime President Alexander Lukashenko is a dictator who rose to ...