Tag Archives: liberalism

Why is this important? Liberalism is based on equality of personhood, distinguishing individuals, whose qualities differ in degree, with personhood as universal. Owing to universality of personhood, all are equal before the law, for example. Equality of personhood underlies the key assertion of liberalism in the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that...

One of the most successful ideas ever is multiculturalism. For thousands of years it has seen an endless sequence of victories. Indeed there were a lot of temporary setbacks, but the long term historic trend is unmistakable. Multiculturalism was initially thought of by kings who conquered an empire of different peoples and wanted to rule them all. These different peoples could keep their own customs and settle most of their own affairs as long as they didn't pose a threat to the social...

Absolutely must-read! Economic planning and societal control: The digital transformation is changing the rules of the game in the global systemic competition. China's determined pursuit of a "digital Leninism" presents a major challenge to liberal market economies and democratic political systems. MERICS — Mercator Institute for China Studies Big Data reshapes China's approach to governance Sebastian Heilmann ht Ryan in the comments Sebastian Heilmann is the founding president of the...

Fascist Franco may have been dead for more than four decades, but Spain is still encumbered with his dictatorial corpse. A new paradigm has been coined right inside the lofty European Union, self-described home/patronizing dispenser of human rights to lesser regions across the planet: “In the name of democracy, refrain from voting, or else.” Call it democracy nano-Franco style. Nano-Franco is Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, whose heroic shock troops were redeployed from a serious...

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S administration is facing strong backlash from civil rights groups after voting against a U.N. resolution that condemns using death penalty to punish “consensual same-sex relations.” The U.N. Human Rights Council approved the measure on Friday with a 27-13 vote, with seven countries abstaining.... The InterceptThe U.S. Voted Against a U.N. Resolution Condemning Death Penalty for LGBTQ PeopleAlex Emmons

Short summary of Mike Perry's new book, which itself is a wide-ranging summary of liberal social, political and economic history, a treatment of neoliberalism, and recommendations for getting out of the box that the ruling elite has constructed to contain alternatives to the power structure.Progress in Political EconomyMorality and Power: On Ethics, Economics and Public PolicyMike Berry

Why is this important in economics? First, women now control a signficant slice of the pie, and secondly, women have an increasingly strong political voice to match their growing economic power.This is chiefly a political battle between liberals and traditionalists. Identity politics is here to stay.Economics is strong influenced by policy. On the programme, scientists argue there is no obvious neurological explanation for the gender divide, with no significant difference between male and...

Populism versus elitism in the UK, with implications for elsewhere. Links to other reviews at the end.It's anecdotal rather than based on sociological and poli sci studies, but it's worth a look anyway.There are parallels in other countries and not necessarily close ones since the differences are large.For example, the liberal Western elite projects its values not only on fellow countrymen, which is turning out to be disproven at the polls, but other countries with very different cultures....

Much Western media and many observers of Russian politics are fond of playing up an ostensible revival of Stalin – his ‘rehabilitation’ as it were – under Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule. This is not just inaccurate — as I have written in the past, the Putin era has seen numerous anti-Stalinist and non-Stalinist state-funded projects including mass audience films, television serials, museums and monuments — but it dangerously distorts our understanding of contemporary Russia....

Putin puts his finger on a key issue without naming explicitly.This is the classical question about what it means to be a good person in a good society.Under Anglo-American liberalism, this question is not to be asked because the market is the arbiter of truth and value equates to prices. In this view, culture is based on utilitarianism, with its stimulus-response model of human behavior, and law exists chiefly to provide security and protect private property.Traditionalism disagrees. In...