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Tag: Democracy

Thad Williamson
Neil Roberts, Melvin Rogers

Melvin Rogers and Neil Roberts discuss the difficulty of keeping faith in a foundationally anti-Black republic.

Johanna Winant, Jessica Wilkerson, Rose Casey

The crisis here spells disaster for the future of public education.

Daniel Williams

In Foolproof, psychologist Sander van der Linden compares misinformation to viral infection—and claims to have a vaccine. 

Anthony Morgan, Amna A. Akbar, Bernard E. Harcourt

Amna Akbar talks with Bernard Harcourt about his new book—and how we can build on existing forms of cooperation to transform society.

Daniel Bessner

Real democratic participation in foreign policy is almost unimaginable today—but this wasn’t always the case.

Pranab Bardhan

Financial Times commentator Martin Wolf says "it's the economy, stupid." The truth is more complicated.

Deborah Chasman, Robin D. G. Kelley

Robin D. G. Kelley on the midterm elections.

Jonathan Levy

The tradition allows private and public life to meet, maintaining a baseline solidarity in civic life.

Nicholas Coccoma

They may seem the cornerstone of democracy, but in reality they do little to promote it. There's a far better way to empower ordinary citizens: democracy by lottery.

Nojang Khatami

From street demonstrations to song, dance, film, and poetry, women are advancing a long legacy of struggle against authoritarianism in Iran.

Danielle Allen

The U.S. federal system is flawed as it currently operates, but it is not destined to be unjust.

David Barsamian, Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky on lies, crimes, and savage capitalism.

Alberto Polimeni

Rather than seeking to quash "populism," we should broaden our vision of politics and make democracies more responsive to citizens.

Jack Parlett

Cruising extends the political value of the city as a space that brings us into contact with people who seem unlike us until we realize our shared desires.

Matthew Cole

Democratic theory points to two problems: unjust concentrations of power and a flawed theory of knowledge.

Lisa L. Miller

In the age of Trump, some progressives have embraced the division of power between state and federal government as a boon to democracy. We should be skeptical.

Joseph Fishkin, William E. Forbath

We must reject the legal liberalism that attempts to cordon off constitutional questions from democratic politics.

Jocelyn Simonson, Sameer Ashar, Amna A. Akbar

When we think, write, and act alongside movements, we help disrupt the everyday violence of law and imagine more radical transformation.

Robin D. G. Kelley
While W. E. B. Du Bois praised an expanding penitentiary system, T. Thomas Fortune called for investment in education and a multiracial, working-class movement.
Celina Su
Cities must empower historically marginalized communities to shape how public funds are spent.
David McDermott Hughes
Sunlight-friendly architecture could heat and illuminate buildings without expending any electricity.
Baher Azmy

The lawless—and ongoing—administration of the prison by four American presidents underwrites the broader democratic crisis we face today.

Jake Grumbach, Ruth Berins Collier
The threat to American democracy springs, most fundamentally, from the social fragmentation wrought by a post-industrial economy.
Glen Weyl, Henry Farrell

New tools and technology policy might help, but politics come first.

Kevin M. Lerner

Public interest journalism may not be salvageable. But more than being saved, it needs to be radically rethought.

Annette Zimmermann

Justice demands that we think not just about profit or performance, but above all about purpose.

Macabe Keliher

Founded a century ago, the Chinese Communist Party has repeatedly defied predictions of its demise. Today it retains popular support by selectively repressing and responding to social demands.

Daron Acemoglu

AI can be used to increase human productivity, create jobs and shared prosperity, and protect and bolster democratic freedoms—but only if we modify our approach.

Raj Patel
They are fighting in a global war over the future of agriculture. Modi is chocking the debate.
Daniel Carpenter
The menthol cigarette citizen’s petition recalls the lost political tradition of petition democracy, when not only could the complaints of any citizen get a hearing, but that hearing would occur publicly—in Congress.
Gregory E. Kaebnick

Its authority derives not from unbiased scientists but from the institutions and norms that structure their work. Fighting mistrust requires more public engagement with policy, not unqualified deference to experts.

C. Thi Nguyen
Two theories paint very different pictures of the sources of our democratic dysfunction. The debate won’t be settled by accusations of political convenience.
Carissa Véliz

The more someone knows about us, the more they can influence us. We can wield democratic power only if our privacy is protected.

Alf Gunvald Nilsen

Narendra Modi’s government has used lockdown to force further neoliberalization and continue its assault on pro-democracy activists.

Michael Patrick Lynch

At a time of anxiety about fake news and conspiracy theories, philosophy can contribute to our most urgent cultural and political questions about how we come to believe what we think we know.

David Singh Grewal, Amy Kapczynski, Jedediah Britton-Purdy

If we are to emerge from this era of crisis, we need legal thinking that operates on fundamentally different presumptions.

Adam Przeworski

Leaders of the left abandoned the language of transformation in the 1980s—at a cost. Can it be regained?

Bernard E. Harcourt

The Republican Party has become a white nationalist party. If old fashioned politics can’t change that, we must consider alternatives.

Archon Fung
Unless we bolster its foundations, our enfeebled democracy won’t be able to solve any of the daunting problems Biden has singled out as priorities.
Jan-Werner Müller

Basic norms exist for political parties; Republicans don’t meet them.

Joshua Cohen, Reed Hundt

Part two of a conversation on voter turnout, vote counting, and what we can expect now. 

Matt Lord

COVID-19 is not just a public health crisis. It is also a crisis of public reason.

Michael Gecan
The only antidote to despair over national politics will be to generate and expand new solutions at local, state, and regional levels.
Samuel Clowes Huneke
West German witchcraft trials after World War II reveal how political rupture can fuel magical thinking. What lessons might we draw for our own age of QAnon conspiracies, anti-vaccination, and strange COVID-19 cures?
Alberto Toscano

A debate is roiling about the aptness of comparing Trump to European fascists. But radical Black thinkers have long argued that racial slavery created its own unique form of American fascism.

Julie C. Suk
Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation is a sham, but it is one the Constitution allows. There’s only one way out of this crisis: we must amend.

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Just in time for the holidays, get any three print issues of Boston Review for just $35 – that’s 40% off the cover price!

Before December 9, mix and match any three issues for one low price using code 3FOR35.

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