Politics

The Murderous Legacy of Cold War Anticommunism

How the Washington-backed Indonesian mass killings of 1965 reshaped global politics, securing a decisive victory for U.S. interests against Third World self-determination.

  • Stuart Schrader

From the Editors: The Right to Be Elected

What does gender equity in a democracy look like?

  • Deborah Chasman
  • Joshua Cohen

In Toronto, Google’s Attempt to Privatize Government Fails—For Now

Sidewalk Labs would have turned a large plot of Toronto’s public land into a private lab for data collection. Cities need better digital governance to protect against such attempts.

  • Bianca Wylie

Sweden’s Relaxed Approach to COVID-19 Isn’t Working

With few restrictions and no tracing of the disease’s spread, the government is relying upon Swedish character and traditions to see it through the pandemic.

  • Adele Lebano

Identity Politics and Elite Capture

The wealthy and powerful will take every opportunity to hijack activist energies for their own ends.

  • Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

Trump, WHO, and Half a Century of Global Health Austerity

Any attempt to revive solidarity between rich and poor nations must begin by recapturing the commitment to social and economic rights on which the World Health Organization was founded.

  • Michael Brenes
  • Michael Franczak

Sign up for our newsletter

Hydroxychloroquine and the Political Polarization of Science

How a drug became an object lesson in political tribalism.

  • Cailin O’Connor
  • James Owen Weatherall

From the Dying World to the World We Want

COVID-19 can set the terms for social transformation.

  • Nikhil Pal Singh

Another Populism

The Civil Rights Movement was a populist struggle.

  • Erin R. Pineda

The View from Latin America

Latin America teaches us that right-wing victory is not permanent.

  • Thea Riofrancos

We Need a Multiracial, Working-Class Alignment

Populist visions must reckon with the realities of racial capitalism.

  • Ted Fertik
  • Maurice Mitchell

Technocracy After COVID-19

Crisis management only blurs ever more the boundary between politics and technical expertise.

  • Jonathan White

The New Politics of Care

The right response to COVID-19 is to rebuild our economy from the ground up, putting people to work in a massive jobs program to secure the public health of all.

  • Amy Kapczynski
  • Gregg Gonsalves

COVID-19 Requires More Democracy, Not Less

We must take very seriously the responsibility to judge our leaders’ policies. When they fail us, we must act as leaders ourselves.

  • Archon Fung

New Book: The Right to Be Elected

What might happen if a woman’s right to vote is seen as coequal with her right to be elected? Preorder our Spring 2020 book now.

Lessons from the Margins of Populist History

To reimagine populism, we must look to its margins.

  • Laura Grattan

Reclaiming Populism

A political appeal to “the people” is a central element of democratic societies. Can we imagine a revitalized, multiracial populist politics today?

  • Adom Getachew
with responses from
  • Jason Frank
  • Laura Grattan
  • Ted Fertik & Maurice Mitchell
  • Thea Riofrancos
  • Erin R. Pineda
  • Nikhil Pal Singh

Body Politics

What does solidarity look like when our bodies cannot come together, in public, to agitate for a better world?

  • Judith Levine

Abortions Don’t Drain Hospital Resources

A doctor’s case against COVID-19 abortion bans.

  • Daniel Grossman

An End to Totalitarianism

On the role government should play in times of crisis.

  • Samuel Clowes Huneke

Can More Political Parties Fix American Democracy?

Some think it would cure two-party gridlock. But what works in parliamentary governments might not help in our presidential system.

  • Sam Rosenfeld

No, Autocracies Aren’t Better for Public Health

Some have praised China’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but its suppression of information helped cause the problem in the first place.

  • Yasheng Huang

Coronavirus and the Politics of Disposability

COVID-19 is having a disproportionate effect among vulnerable populations. As in all U.S. disasters, there will be a tale to tell of who mattered and who was sacrificed.

  • Shaun Ossei-Owusu

“Hello, We Are from Wisconsin, and We Are Your Future”

As Wisconsinites are forced to vote during a pandemic, it’s worth recalling the 2011 Wisconsin Uprising, and the valuable lessons that can be gleaned from labor organizing in the face of disaster.

  • Eleni Schirmer
trending_flat
Get our newsletter

Vital reading on politics, ideas, and culture to your inbox

A political and literary forum, independent and nonprofit since 1975

Registered 501(c)(3) organization

Help Us Stay Paywall-Free

Donate

Become a Member

Subscribe