Democracy Archives - Page 48 of 57

Democracy in Poland?

From Authoritarian Populism to Populist Authoritarianism

October 30, 2019 • by Jacek Kucharczyk

The intensity and consistency of the PiS attack on democratic institutions came as a surprise to all but the harshest critics of the party. The experience of Kaczynski’s party’s first stint in government from 2005-2007 – when the authoritarian tendencies of PiS were effectively checked by the courts, independent media, ...

Democracy

Open Letter: We Stand with the Kurdish People of Syria!

October 29, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

We are writing as scholars and citizens of the world to express our concern for the Kurdish people of Syria, whose fate has been dramatically altered by events that started with a phone call between President Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on October 6, 2019. Since then, the United ...

Democracy

The Theater of Impeachment

An interview with Brenda Wineapple

October 29, 2019 • by Charlotte Slivka

BW: That’s a lot of questions! I had to have a sense of what the story was in order for the narrative could take shape. The entire book took six years to research and to write, but the story came to me after about two years into the research. In other ...

Democracy

In Her Own Way, She Lived as a Philosopher

Jurgen Habermas Remembers Agnes Heller

October 29, 2019 • by Jurgen Habermas

This year, when with a guilty conscience and much too late I congratulated her for her 90th birthday, Agnes Heller replied without a trace of hurt feelings: “Well wishes are never too late.” Death notices, however, always come too soon. To the very end, Agnes Heller was a person full ...

Democracy

The Impeachers

The Trial Of Andrew Johnson And The Dream Of A Just Nation

October 29, 2019 • by Brenda Wineapple

“Andrew Johnson was the queerest man who ever occupied the White House,” one of his colleagues remembered. As Lincoln’s Vice President, thrust into the presidency after Lincoln’s assassination, Johnson earned the hatred and opprobrium of most Republicans, particularly those members of Lincoln’s party in Congress who initially hoped that he ...

North America

Mayor Pete: Quit Scapegoating African-American Voters

Gay candidates are welcomed when they engage with voters — I was

October 28, 2019 • by Jim Neal

Whereas Buttigieg is the second openly gay candidate for the presidency in US history (after Fred Karger in 2012) I was the second openly gay candidate for the Senate in US history (after Ed Flanagan in 2000). Prior to 2007, I had never run for elective office: my political experience had principally been as a ...

History

The Syrian Crisis in Longer View

A review of Fragile Nation, Shattered Land

October 28, 2019 • by Spenser Rapone

Reviewed by Spenser R. Rapone The future of the Syrian Arab Republic, still embroiled in a brutal civil war, is today a topic of raging debate in the Middle East and beyond. Taking the long view, James A. Reilly’s Fragile Nation, Shattered Land: The Modern History of Syria recounts the origins ...

North America

“This is Our Campaign”

What The Bernie Sanders Campaign Means For Racial Justice

October 25, 2019 • by Mat Cusick

Before a sold-out audience of about 200 attendees of a broad spectrum of age, race, and background, and over 10,000 viewers watching online by livestream, these three black women attempted to clarify why Bernie Sanders -- the 78-year-old white man who has served for nearly three decades as a national ...

North America

Slow But Steady Wins the Race

Warren leads Pete, Joe and Bernie in new poll

October 25, 2019 • by Claire Potter

Warren 28% Buttigieg 20% Sanders 18% Biden 12% Even if this is an outlier poll (Real Clear Politics has a list of four different ones that ...

Europe & Central Asia

How Poland Ruined its 1989

A liberal democratic dream too good to be true

October 24, 2019 • by Irena Grudzińska-Gross

The first half of 1989 in Poland was amazing -- delivering early and decisive blows to the Berlin wall, which fell later that year. From February to April 4th, the representatives of the Polish government negotiated with the Solidarity oppositional groups; in June, in partially free elections, the communist government ...

North America

Simple Is Sometimes Simplistic, and Stupid

Is it Really Smart to Narrow the Impeachment?

October 22, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

A focused impeachment that builds public support is surely a good thing; I’ve been arguing this for the past six months. But it seems extremely foolish to believe that focus can only be achieved through a narrowing of vision, and it seems worse than foolish to believe that Trump’s other abuses of power ...

North America

Democrats Need to Treat Impeachment More Politically

Holding hearings in public now would be a start

October 19, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

The story reports on the information shared with the House Intelligence Committee by Fiona Hill. But why did the New York Times not question the fact that Hill was testifying in private? Hill is only the most recent current or former national security official to be deposed by the House Intelligence Committee about this latest, and ...