Politics Archives - Page 78 of 105

Democracy

Is Democracy in Italy Secure?

Fascism’s appeal to Italian youth is a worrisome trend

January 13, 2020 • by Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi

Beginning in the early 1990s, however, a normalizing trend has overturned these institutional guarantees, undermining the legacy of all those who struggled to reestablish democracy. Coinciding with the ascent to the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, naive, if not altogether nostalgic, recollections of Mussolini and his regime have become ...

Democracy

Coup or Counter-Revolution in Bolivia?

Taking a broader historical view

January 8, 2020 • by Nicolás Lynch

The events in Bolivia continue to arouse sharp controversy over the ways political power can change (Arato, Peruzzotti and Avritzer). The so-called “transitional government” of Jeanine Añez claims legitimacy for having deposed a dictator, while the ousted government of President Evo Morales says it has been victim of a coup d’etat. First and foremost, ...

Democracy

Iran, Impeachment, and Implosion

Trump keeps getting worse — and the crises are interconnected

January 8, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

On December 18 of last year, the House of Representatives voted to impeach in the face of very public Republican obstructionism. Within hours of the vote, Nancy Pelosi announced that she had yet to decide how to move forward with delivering the impeachment articles to the Republican-controlled Senate, and was ...

Middle East & North Africa

Saying No to a Stupid War

Americans must say no to war, using every tool at our command

January 7, 2020 • by Jeremy Varon

These crude axioms drive the euphoria felt by a vocal portion of the American public at the killing of Iranian Quds commander Qassem Soleimani. That Trump ordered the strike adds to its luster. To members of his cult the murder proves Trump a master of manly resolve, besting his feckless predecessors. He has set and ...

Middle East & North Africa

The Slaying of Qassem Soleimani

This assassination by the United States exceeds its immediate implications for war

January 7, 2020 • by Hussein Banai

Although he has long been on the radar of policymakers around the world, Soleimani’s profile had only recently come to public attention in the West, owing largely to his instrumental role in expanding the Islamic Republic’s sphere of influence in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. He was particularly known, and ...

North America

A Vote for Sanders is a Vote to Restore the Commonwealth

Government is essential to defending truth and dignity — and that requires changing minds

January 7, 2020 • by Bernard Avishai

This past year, though, I spent much of my time torturing myself with choice. My YouTube account would show me flitting -- admiringly, on the advice of pundits, and for all the obvious reasons -- from Pete Buttigieg, to Elizabeth Warren, to Kamala Harris, then back to Warren, then, for ...

A Vote for Sanders is a Vote to Restore the Commonwealth

Activism

The History of American Progress is also Jewish History

On the final night of Hannukah, we put Jews at the center of the American narrative

December 30, 2019 • by Peter Dreier

Election results and public opinion polls reveal that among white Americans, Jews have consistently been the most liberal and progressive ethnic and religious group. In 1920, when only 3 percent of Americans voted for Eugene Debs, the Socialist Party candidate for president, Jews gave him 38 percent of their votes. In 1932, when Franklin Roosevelt ...

The History of American Progress is also Jewish History

Latin America & Caribbean

Democratic Degradation and the Bolivian Coup

A response to Andrew Arato’s reflections on Bolivia

December 30, 2019 • by Leonardo Avritzer

In his recent article “Coup, Revolution or Negotiated Regime Change: The Case of Bolivia,” Andrew Arato responds positively to the latest political developments in La Paz. In disagreement with his Latin American students, he expresses the following caution: “I hesitate to concede the point [there was a coup] to begin ...

Democratic Degradation and the Bolivian Coup

Activism

Fonda’s Firedrill Fridays

December 28, 2019 • by Jo Freeman

Each features a rally on the southeast quadrant of the Capitol lawn followed by a short march and mass civil disobedience in a different location. The theme varies. On November 29 (the day after Thanksgiving) it was Food Justice and Agriculture. On December 20 it was it was Health. Held the day before ...

Latin America & Caribbean

Authoritarian Coup or Deposed Authoritarian Leader

A response to Andrew Arato’s reflections on Bolivia

December 27, 2019 • by Enrique Peruzzotti

In the past, coups were coups; they were all-or-nothing events where there could be no disagreement over what occurred. Coups consisted of the unlawful removal of an elected government by a (non-elected) segment of the state apparatus (usually the military) and the temporary suspension of the constitutional order in a ...

Authoritarian Coup or Deposed Authoritarian Leader

Politics

Understanding Kashmir’s Crisis

Current narratives ignore key histories

December 26, 2019 • by Shubh Mathur

On August 5, the Indian government, headed by the hard-right Hindu nationalist party BJP, unilaterally revoked Articles 370 of the Indian Constitution, ending the limited autonomy of Kashmir. This move of dubious legality, carried out entirely without consulting Kashmiris, was supported by a majority in the Indian parliament. Anticipating bitter ...

North America

Blue Dreaming at the Warren Debate Watch Party

A Letter from Hillsborough

December 24, 2019 • by Dorothy Potter Snyder

I told her I wanted to find out what Warren supporters in my small town are feeling about the Senator's chances of winning the nomination and the general election. I always posit that in North Carolina, the swingiest of the swing states, if you take the temperature here in little Hillsborough, you can find ...