Category: Democratic theory

Velvet Revolution dissidents warn of new threats to Czech freedom

     

Protests broke out in Prague Saturday on the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution after courts confirmed that Prime Minister Andrej Babis collaborated with the StB, the Communist era secret… Read more »

‘Rudderless West’ drifting to ‘civilizational self-negation’?

     

The West is now rudderless. To be rudderless puts you at the mercy of elements. The elemental forces of politics today are tribalism, populism, authoritarianism and the sewage pipes of… Read more »

Illiberal democracy – liberalism vs. democracy?

     

“[W]hat, in practice, can the idea of democracy possibly mean?” political scientist James Miller asks in Can Democracy Work? A Short History of a Radical Idea, From Ancient Athens to Our World. Miller begins… Read more »

Why liberalism (hasn’t) failed – but hyper-liberalism is a problem

     

In his Why Liberalism Failed, Patrick Deneen, a professor of political science at Notre Dame, targets some genuine weaknesses of liberalism, sometimes with considerable eloquence, but never succeeds in presenting… Read more »

The latest threat to liberal democracy: dataism

     

  We are approaching another “end of history” moment – but with a difference, argues John Naughton, professor of the public understanding of technology at the Open University. In his… Read more »

Why the experts get Russia wrong

     

Why has divining Russia’s political future been so hard? asks Timothy Frye, the Director of the Harriman Institute at Columbia University. It is a challenge not because of the supposedly… Read more »

The Crooked Timber of Humanity & the ‘death’ of liberal democracy

     

  In Russia, and now in countries from Hungary to Poland, and in China, forms of authoritarianism are ascendant and liberalism (or even modest liberalization) are in retreat, Roger Cohen… Read more »

States of disorder: the new world order

     

As the global economy transcends borders and Isis raises its flag, could the very nature of “states” be changing? asks Philip Bobbitt, the author of “The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace… Read more »

Democratic strategy in new era of complexity

     

  The US will remain indispensable to global problem-solving, provided an updated mindset, new institutions, and flexible alliances are in place, says a leading analyst. The American government elected in… Read more »