Daniel Ziblatt is the Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University and director of the Transformations of Democracy group at Berlin's Social Science Center. He is the coauthor with Steven Levitsky of How Democracies Die and a new book The Tyranny of the Minority and the author of Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy. Access... Continue Reading →
Cass Sunstein on Interpreting the US Constitution
Cass Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School. During Obama’s first term he was the Administrator for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He is the author of dozens of books including Nudge (with Richard Thaler) and The World According to Star Wars. His most recent book is How to... Continue Reading →
The Debt Ceiling: Enough Already
By David Bernell and Thomas Graham President Biden and Kevin McCarthy continue to talk about how to resolve the conflict over the debt ceiling and avert a US default on its national debt for the first time ever in the country’s history. But there may be little use to further talking. Kevin McCarthy seems to... Continue Reading →
Thomas Scandal is the Latest Example Of Why Court Reforms are Necessary
By Tiffany Muller During his tenure on the Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas has vehemently opposed transparency measures designed to root out corruption. So, it should come as no surprise now that he’s at the center of one of the most damning scandals in Supreme Court history. In 2010, the Court’s Citizens United decision allowed... Continue Reading →
A Democratic Deficit: The War in Iraq
By David Cortright War in Iraq Twenty years ago this month, millions of people in Europe, the United States and on every continent took to the streets to oppose the dangers and likely human cost of invading Iraq. It was the largest antiwar movement in history. Former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft warned that war... Continue Reading →
One Nonpartisan Judicial Election Will Determine the Path of Wisconsin Politics
By Barry Burden A Judicial Election In the cold days of winter, a perfect storm has formed in Wisconsin politics. The storm is turning what would be a humdrum nonpartisan judicial election into an intense ideological showdown that may well shape state policies for years to come. The chair of the state’s Democratic Party described... Continue Reading →
Sam Bankman-Fried Said He Exploited the Citizens United Decision. Oh boy, Did He Ever.
By Tiffany Muller Exploiting Citizens United Thirteen years ago, the Supreme Court handed down the Citizens United v. FEC decision, one of the most disastrous decisions in the Court’s history. The case took two bad ideas and combined them–the idea that money equals speech and corporations are people. The Court effectively put a for sale... Continue Reading →
The GOP Embraces Extreme Polarization
By Robert C. Lieberman A Profound Disappointment For anyone who thought that Donald Trump’s electoral defeat and subsequent humiliation would diminish the extreme polarization that afflicts American politics, the opening of the 118th Congress can only have been a pretty profound disappointment. For half a century or more in the middle and late twentieth century,... Continue Reading →
Robert Kagan Looks to American History to Explain Foreign Policy Today
Robert Kagan is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, a columnist at The Washington Post, and among the most influential writers on foreign policy today. His latest book is Ghost at the Feast: America and the Collapse of World Order, 1900-1941. Become a Patron! Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. We... Continue Reading →
Vote Yes for a Constitutional Convention (for Rhode Island)
By Kevin Frazier A State Constitutional Convention In less than two years, Rhode Island residents will have an opportunity to serve as the democratic innovators so desperately needed in these gridlocked times. Every ten years, a question is placed on Rhode Island ballots: “Shall there be a convention to amend or revise the Constitution?” The... Continue Reading →