Politics

France after Charlie Hebdo

France’s own political traditions can accommodate visible Islam and heal social divisions.

Still Missing: Etan Patz—and Others

During the exhaustive search for Etan, black children were disappearing in Atlanta.

Pat Lynch’s Deadly Machismo

In this drama of race and sexuality, the NYPD could learn something from Mayor de Blasio.

Martin Luther King on Non-Violence and Disarmament

Whether addressing church parishioners or college students, King often demanded an end to the nuclear arms race.

Ever-Crumbling Walls

The identity of a nation lies in its borders.

Of Popes and Dogs

The Church has always had a vexed, somewhat aggrieved relation to dogs and their status as things to be blessed or sanctified.

Slumming It

Heated response to “slum ethnography” is as old as the genre itself.

The Bill of Rights in the Modern Age

Technology, business, and government are changing the 482 words in the U.S. Constitution.

Money Is Not the Only (or the Biggest) Source of Voter Distrust

Rates of participation in politics are still at or near historic lows after decades of skyrocketing campaign spending.

The Rise of Outside Spending

The "independent" expenditures in the midterm elections are record-breaking 

An Afterthought on Indyref

Overnight, the hopeful, broad-based, grassroots independence movement gave rise to the righteous wronged.

Rethinking Privacy

A little surveillance can do us a lot of good.

Conservatives are Driving Americans Away from Religion

Religiously-inflected politics of personal morality alienated more recently-born moderate and liberal Americans from the church.

Trench Democracy in Public Administration #3: An Interview with Jamie Verbrugge

Participatory Innovation in Unlikely Places.

Fighting Inequality in the New Gilded Age

Restoring genuine democracy must go beyond campaign finance.

“The Industry of Ideas”: Measuring the Impact of Think Tanks

Investigating money in politics is a little like studying dark matter.

The Moral Siege

The militarization of Jewish supremacism in Israel.

Righting the GOP

On Rick Perlstein’s The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan

A Short History of Women in Politics

It is worth pausing to reflect on how women’s participation in politics has changed over the course of American history.

Why Haven’t We Talked to Putin?

There is no evidence that U.S. leaders have tried to engage Putin and his inner circle about the crisis in Ukraine.

A Business Can Exercise Religion, but Hobby Lobby Still Gets It Wrong

Why did the Supreme Court extend religious exercise rights to for-profit corporations?

The Neoliberal Bailout

Sure, the system worked—we avoided another Great Depression. But it worked much better for some than for others. 

Saving Social Security

A gimmick-free plan for long-term solvency

Three Assumptions that Led to Kerry’s Failure in the Middle East

The conflict doesn’t need more architects.

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