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Category: <span>Dispatches</span>

Dispatches

Category: Dispatches

Can Democracy Be Established Undemocratically?

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The Ethical and Political Dilemmas of the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution Photo Credit: Jiri Igaz / Shutterstock.com November 17th, 2019 was the thirtieth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. This revolution, marvelous though it was, and its aftermath, I believe, demonstrates that creating a mature democracy out of thin air is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. The apparent success of the revolution hid flaws that seemed to be …

Democrats of the World, Unite!

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A Report on the First International Meeting of Democracy Seminar 2.0 With authoritarians dominating worldwide – Trump, Putin, Erdogan, Orban, and Kaczynski, among many others – it is time for their democratic critics to unite, or at least carefully compare notes about the authoritarian threats, considering ways to oppose them, and ways to support each other. That is the purpose of Democracy Seminar 2.0. I proposed the seminar more than …

Democracy in Poland?

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From Authoritarian Populism to Populist Authoritarianism Step by step for four years, Poland’s ruling party, the Law and Justice Party (PiS), has been dismantling democracy. Starting almost immediately after it came to power with the assault on the independence of the Constitutional Tribunal in December 2015, a fully consolidated democracy has been deconsolidating. Poland, thus, follows the pattern observed by Zoltán Gábor Szűcs, in his recent post on Hungary, with …

Keeping the Left Alive: Michael Walzer’s Political Action Reissued

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If any book can help left-wing activists figure out how not to burn out, this is probably it Over the past four years, a remarkable number of Americans have gotten involved for the first time in liberal or left organizations. Upsurges of involvement have happened before. “It is an old American story,” the political theorist Michael Walzer wrote in a 1979 essay. “The flames of the political Left don’t …

Open Letter: We Stand with the Kurdish People of Syria!

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From members of Democracy Seminar 2.0: We are writing as scholars and citizens of the world to express our concern for the Kurdish people of Syria, whose fate has been dramatically altered by events that started with a phone call between President Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on October 6, 2019. Since then, the United States has started pulling out most of its military forces from the …

Varieties of Gendered Populism

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The case of Poland “LGBT movement and gender constitute serious threats to our identity, to our nation and to the Polish state” announced Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of the Law and Justice party on April 2019. This was not the first time he expressed such views, nor is he the only right-wing populist leader condemning “gender” as a danger to family, community and nation. Similar claims have been …

Lies, Fakes, and Deep Fakes

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Deceptions and Scams in the Age of Trump On May 22nd, 2019, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was addressing a conference at the Center for American Progress — a liberal think tank — when she laid out her position on a potential Trump impeachment. Not a highly articulate speaker at the best of times, Pelosi stumbled over a few syllables in her presentation and halted between a few words …

The Story of Indian Democracy Written in Blood and Betrayal

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BJP thinks it is going to Indianize Kashmir. Instead, we will see, potentially, the Kashmirization of India. There are times in the history of a republic when it reduces itself to jackboot. Nothing more and nothing less. We are witnessing that moment in Kashmir. But this moment is also a dry run for the political desecration that may follow in the rest of India. The manner in which …

Hong Kong’s Twin Questions of Democracy and Self-Determination

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The long summer of discontent in Hong Kong Hong Kong is in the turmoil that caught everyone by surprise. The protracted protests in the long summer of discontent this year started with resistance to an extradition bill that would allow the Hong Kong government to transfer Hong Kong’s residents to mainland Chinese courts. Opposition activists, local business leaders, and international investors view it as an extension of the …

Turkey’s Authoritarianism and Crisis Management

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It’s Complicated! It is a widespread tendency to attribute financial volatility and economic crises in the global South to national policy makers. Despite the undeniable impact of policy choices and regulations on financial calamities, attributing the cause of economic breakdowns simply to the corrupt nature of political regimes, exclusionary institutions, or authoritarian statesmanship lacks insight into the political economic transformations within these countries. Commentaries on Turkey’s 2018-19 economic …