Politics Archives - Page 84 of 105

Democracy

Hong Kong’s Twin Questions of Democracy and Self-Determination

The long summer of discontent in Hong Kong

August 29, 2019 • by Ho-fung Hung

Back in August 31st, 2014, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China decided that any future "universal suffrage" of the highest office of Hong Kong would be subject to strict candidate vetting by a nomination committee dominated by Beijing loyalists. It means such an election will be ...

Activism

A Letter from Hillsborough

A Modern Southern Fairy Tale

August 27, 2019 • by Dorothy Potter Snyder

On the list of the endangered are people of color, women, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, refugees, children, the elderly, and the disabled. Last month, in Hillsborough, North Carolina, once upon a time was now. *** Matthew Shepherd, a gay chocolatier, qualifies for a spot on the endangered list. These are tough times ...

Democracy

Further Thoughts on Antifa

Counter-Violence is not Self-Defense

August 26, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

On the one hand, my piece has generated some interesting discussions, the main point of contention of which centers on the question of whether “Antifa” is a form of self-defense in response to the presence of dangerous and armed racists. On the other hand, “antifascist” organizing continues apace in Bloomington. A rump market ...

Democracy

Turkey’s Authoritarianism and Crisis Management

It’s Complicated!

August 26, 2019 • by Ali Rıza Güngen

For many observers, it is the authoritarian shift and the irresponsible policies accompanying the regime change of 2017-18 that led to the latest economic crisis in Turkey. They generally tend to deem the 2003-07 period as the golden years of the Turkish economy, despite the fact that Turkey’s credit-led model ...

Feature

A Political Machine for the 21st Century

The Trump Organization As Platform Capitalism

August 22, 2019 • by Jeffrey D. Broxmeyer

Today, the Trump Organization lies at the epicenter of political power in the American state. How should we make sense of the family business and its relationship to politics? Ethics watchdogs and journalists speak of "conflicts of interest” when the president governs from Mar-a-Lago or promotes his golf properties and ...

Democracy

Antifa Is Not a Terrorist Organization

But That Doesn’t Make It Good

August 20, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Simultaneously, racism and white supremacism have assumed a new importance. President Donald Trump is a virulent racist and demagogue who consorts with white supremacists, praises them, gives them aid and comfort, and even includes them as high-ranking members of his campaign (Steve Bannon) and administration (Stephen Miller). The mass murder ...

Blue Monday

Putting Trump’s Racism in its Place

One More Reason Why AOC Should Be the Face of the Democratic Party’s Future

August 12, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

A naïve reader might read this and imagine that Hewitt’s point is obvious: the contrast between Presidential candidate Kennedy in 1968 and the current President, Donald Trump, in 2019. The contrast is more than obvious. It is glaring. And yet, of course, Hewitt has other purposes in mind. The first is ...

Blue Monday

Some Banal Thoughts About the Mutuality of Evil in our Midst

We Must Defeat Trump, Not Entreat Him

August 5, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

According to the Gun Violence Archive, these episodes are the 250th and 251st mass shootings of the year. It defines a mass shooting as “four or more shot and/or killed in a single event [incident], at the same general time and location not including the shooter.” As USA Today noted: “The bloody 24 hours also ...

Democracy

What Are Iranians Dreaming about Today?

Reflections on the Islamic Revolution at 40

August 1, 2019 • by Kian Tajbakhsh

Introduction Almost 20 years ago, I published an article under the title “Political Decentralization and the Creation of Local Government in Iran: Consolidation or Transformation of the Theocratic State?” (Tajbakhsh 2000). The establishment of an elected local government in every city and village in Iran was the most significant institutional innovation ...

Democracy

For Democracy / Against Cynicism

On Trump, McConnell, Pelosi and Company

July 31, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

“I believe the single most pressing challenge facing American society today is widespread public cynicism.” With these words, I opened my book The Cynical Society, published in 1991. I was deeply concerned by the interaction between the cynicism of politicians, on the one hand, and the cynicism of the media ...

Politics

The New Prime Minister Versus History

How Boris Johnson misrepresented the United Kingdom’s past to present himself as its political heir

July 30, 2019 • by Alistair Somerville

What do Johnson’s methods of storytelling and the content of his tales tell us about the man and the prospects for his premiership? To many on this side of the Atlantic, he is simply an enigmatic buffoon — little more than a jumped up Trump mini-me with a plummier accent. ...

Europe & Central Asia

Hungary: How Liberty Can Be Lost

Tyrannies always collapse, but whether Hungarians will escape with their sanity and sufficient clarity for a new start remains to be seen

July 23, 2019 • by Agnes Heller

As the Bible (Exodus) teaches and, more recently, Hannah Arendt warns, liberation is not yet liberty. The institutions of liberty must first be constituted, and people need to learn how to make them work while breathing spirit into them. The years 1989–1991 were a time of liberation for all the people ...