Tag Archives: democracy

I’ve just reviewed Professor Carey Doberstein’s book on homelessness governance (UBC Press). The book looks at the way decisions are made pertaining to funding for homelessness programs in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto during the 1995-2015 period. Points raised in my review include the following: -Homelessness trends look quite different across the three cities. For example, it can be growing in one city, but declining in another. -One of the book’s main arguments is that better decisions...

Sen. Bernie Sanders, speaking at a policy forum here Tuesday, identified a singular roadblock to achieving success on a host of progressive policies — and it wasn’t the Trump administration. It’s American oligarchy. Bingo! USA TODAYSen. Bernie Sanders says this one issue keeps progressive policies from advancing Nicole Gaudiano, USA TODAY

The idea that authoritarianism attracts workers harmed by the free market, which emerged when the Nazis were in power, has been making a comeback. Pushback is not the major reason why capitalism is a threat to democracy. Modern capitalism, characterized by extraction of economic rent — land rent, monopoly rent and financial rent — results in oligarchy.The populist and progressive backlash is a reaction to the excesses of the system now generally called "neoliberalism." It has also been...

Remainers claim that Brexit will be an economic apocalypse. But it provides the opportunity for a radical break with neoliberalism. JacobinWhy the Left Should Embrace Brexit Thomas Fazi and Bill Mitchell

Well, to be clear, Trump is a big problem. But he’s not the cause of our problems. To understand why, we have to go back to the 70s, when conservatives and oligarchs launched a de facto coup that ultimately ushered in a New Dark Ages. Conservatives like Lewis Powell and Milton Friedman were mounting a counterattack on the progressive policies of the New Deal, in an attempt to make America more “business friendly.” As I detail in my book WTF, America? How the US Went Off the Rails and How...

The comprehensive survey by the Pew Research Center released Thursday found deep partisan divides over whether the country is achieving some of the values critical to maintaining democratic principles. Suggests that populism is on the rise across the population asa whole regardless of the partisan divide and large cohort that self-identifies as independent. This in turn suggests different forms of populism. The Hill Survey: Most say US not living up to its democratic idealsReid Wilson

The lessons from last weekend’s strike on Syria by the United States of America and two of its allies do not bode well for the future of democracy or the future of peace, says Inder Comar.  More warnings than lessons. "It can't happen here." Consortium NewsFour Lessons From the Strike on Syria Inder ComarRelatedAre most Americans "good Americans" like the "good Germans" that not only did not oppose Hitler but elected him and stood by him when he later made war illegally and aggressively...

So, I’ve changed the description of this blog’s perspective to socialist. I haven’t however, adopted the formulation “democratic socialist” which was used, in the 20th century, to emphasise a rejection of the Stalinist claim to have produced “actually existing socialism” in the Soviet Union and elsewhere. That’s no longer necessary. As has been true for most of the history of the modern world, the only serious threat to democracy is now coming from the right. So, it’s important to defend...

When we published our latest book – Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World – last September, Thomas Fazi and I approached the UK Guardian to see if they would publish an Op Ed by us summarising the main arguments presented in the book. We received no response. Pluto tell us that the book is one of their better sellers since it was published. And it is not as if the topic is irrelevant in the Guardian’s assessment. That is clear from the fact...

Today, I have a lot of travelling coming up. So time is tight. Regular readers will know my views on the Eurozone. I have held those views since the late 1980s when I was a young lecturer. Nothing has changed to change my opinion. It is an unmitigated disaster. And, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, the Europhiles on the Left and the Right continue to put out propaganda trying to defend their monstrosity. Here is a selection of the latest input from the elites on how the EU is...