The Constitution has Become Political By now the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer has become old news. But the political conflict over his successor has only just begun. Republicans have made the control of the Supreme Court a key part of their political agenda. Senator Lindsey Graham recently noted in resignation the Democrats have the... Continue Reading →
Democracy Books this Week Maybe I'm late to the party to celebrate Amartya Sen's memoir, Home in the World. It was released in the UK back in August, but took until this week to be published in the US. It's coming out on audiobook as well next month, so it's past time for us to celebrate... Continue Reading →
Bilal Baloch is the Co-Founder and COO of Enquire, formerly GlobalWonks. He is also a non-resident visiting scholar at the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of When Ideas Matter: Democracy and Corruption in India. We have core ideas that form a part of our worldview, but... Continue Reading →
Ideas and Political Decisions Political science almost always falls back into discussions of institutions and interests. The human element gets extracted from serious research, because it does not fit well into statistical analysis or spatial models. Instead, ideas and opinions become diminished into political interests. In other words, scholars largely assume ideologies do not evolve... Continue Reading →
Democracy Books this Week What does it mean to be free? This question is at the heart of Lea Ypi's memoir, but it's also found in the core of most work in political theory. The books below approach democracy from a variety of angles. Most of the titles this week approach cultural or social aspects... Continue Reading →
Sara Wallace Goodman is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine and the author of Citizenship in Hard Times: How Ordinary People Respond to Democratic Threat. If I could say one thing to every citizen, it's to put country before party. Which is, you know, at this time it... Continue Reading →
Citizenship in Liberal Democracy The idea of liberal democracy awkwardly combines two very distinct ideas into a larger normative project. Liberalism and democracy align in their values, but they diverge in their approach to citizenship. In a democracy the citizen becomes central to government. The people become sovereign. However, liberalism asserts the need to protect... Continue Reading →
Democracy Books this Week How do civil wars start? When will world leaders get serious about solving climate change?How do nations from India and Pakistan to North Korea and Iran develop unclear weapons technology? These are a few of the questions books from this week try to answer. It's exciting to see so many books... Continue Reading →
Joseph Wright is a professor of political science at Pennsylvania State University. Abel Escribà-Folch is an associate professor of political science at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. They cowrote the book Migration and Democracy: How Remittances Undermine Dictatorships along with Covadonga Meseguer. This is money that flows between individuals and families and largely circumvents governments and that's... Continue Reading →
Migration and Democracy Those who say immigration has become a prominent political issue likely understate its importance. Its difficulty involves multiple dimensions surrounding economic, political, and cultural concerns. However, most consider it purely as a domestic political issue. Americans consider its effects on America. Australians consider its effects on Australia. In the rare moments when... Continue Reading →
