Politics

Reading Yeats in the Age of Trump

No poet captures the feeling of political failure—of having lost an unfair fight—like W. B. Yeats.

  • Stephanie Burt

The Souls of White Folk

What can W. E. B. Du Bois and the black radical tradition tell us about Trump’s election and radical political action today?

  • Walter Johnson

After Trump

A pluralistic democracy is built on debate, disagreement, and wakeful action. This forum begins the conversation.

  • Joshua Cohen
with responses from
  • Janice Fine
  • Judith Levine
  • Robin D. G. Kelley
  • Christopher Petrella
  • William Howell
  • Nick Bromell

How Not to Argue for Basic Income

When proponents deploy the logic of market competition, they undermine democracy and social equality.

  • Brishen Rogers

Global Dystopias, Critical Dystopias: A Podcast with Junot Díaz

Our critique of the present is essential to producing a future. 

  • Junot Díaz

Real Citizens

Trump shows us that populism is not the same as legitimate protest—or democracy.

  • Jan-Werner Müller

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The End of Interventionism

Two British reports deliver a damning and decisive verdict on the politics of interventionism.

  • Alex de Waal

For the Wealthy, Citizenship at a Premium

Malta, Portugal, and Spain offer quick routes to passports for global elite willing to pay. This raises fundamental questions about the meaning and value of citizenship.

  • Max Holleran

Putin’s More Perfect Union

The idea that Putin is driven by the philosophy of Eurasianism obscures the pragmatism of Russia’s foreign policy.

  • Jordan Michael Smith

The New World Order

The 1850s were a turning point for globalization, from telegraphs to colonization.

  • Matthew Karp

Kashmir’s High Price for Demanding Independence

In the name of fighting radical Islam, Indian troops have gone to war with civilians.

  • Tariq Mir

Between Experts and Citizens

Brexit is an episode in the long contest between rulers and the working class.

  • Jo Guldi

Bad News for Brazilian Democracy

Dilma Rousseff's impeachment circumvented the democratic process.

  • Gianpaolo Baiocchi

Confronting Religious Revivalism

Liberal democracy requires that we banish religion from politics.

  • Assaf Sharon
  • Avishai Margalit
with responses from
  • Michael Walzer
  • Avishai Margalit & Assaf Sharon

Great Exploitations

States are stealing from orphans to pad their budgets. And it's legal.

  • Erik Loomis

“Go home!”: Being Foreign in Post-Brexit Britain

For many EU citizens in the UK, the Brexit vote means the end of home as they know it.

  • Andrea Mammone

NATO Has Problems, But Trump Won’t Fix Them

Trump may have just been running off at the mouth, but policy experts agree he’s not entirely wrong about our dysfunctional relationship with NATO.

  • Simon Waxman

The Ideology of the Olympics

The Olympics have long tried to obscure the political nature of sport.

  • Robert L. Kehoe III

Common Property

How social insurance became confused with socialism.

  • Elizabeth Anderson

Do Government Incentives Make Us Bad Citizens?

Government incentives may make us less moral, not more.

  • John McMahon

The Forgotten State

Local government can’t fix our problems. Only big government can.

  • Mike Konczal

The Logic of Misogyny

Moralistic or not, misogyny is not about hating women. It is about controlling them.

  • Kate Manne
with responses from
  • Imani Perry
  • Susan J. Brison
  • Amber A'Lee Frost
  • Christina Hoff Sommers
  • Doug Henwood
  • Tali Mendelberg
  • Vivian Gornick

Who’s to Blame in South Sudan?

The country needs a political rebirth.

  • Mahmood Mamdani

Jefferson: Hero or Villain? It’s Complicated.

It is almost impossible to grasp how much Thomas Jefferson believed in progress.

  • Richard Kreitner
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