Tag Archives: paradoxes of liberalism

At least China is upfront about this. And is taking all the media flak. The whole kerfuffle over Huawei is about who is going to control the information, foreign intelligence services or Five Eyes (US, UK, Canada, Oz and NZ).ACLUThe FBI is Tracking Our Faces in Secret. We’re Suing. Kade Crockford , Director

Modern Europe’s political structure is based on the supposition that capitalism and democracy can be compatible – so the most urgent challenge of our times is reconciling the two. In short, economic liberalism and political liberal generate paradoxes that require a comprehensive worldview (systematic set of presumptions) that balances social, economic and political liberalism for Western liberalism to survive. New StatesmanCapitalism vs democracy: Europe’s hard problem Mark...

Some social & political theory. Focuses on Walter Lippmann, The Good Society. Although Eric Schliesser doesn't mention it in this post, Aristotle discussed these issues in detail in his Politics.Digressions&ImpressionsOn Demagogues and DemocracyEric Schliesser | Professor of Political Science, University of Amsterdam’s (UvA) Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences

Contemporary liberals are temperamentally conservative — and what they want to conserve is a morally bankrupt political order.,,, A characteristic of neoliberalism? Maybe I was predisposed to democratic socialism; I always considered myself to be “on the Left,” even as a teenager. In any case, it’s become clear in retrospect that watching the liberal class respond to events over the past decade has been a powerful stimulus in my politicization. Which is to say, I didn’t acquire radical...

Jordan Peterson is the pop philosopher of greatest interest in the US right now. His thought is of interest for that reason, especially for those who like staying au courant. But his is more important in the large picture for why he is regarded as important, especially in a culture in which philosophy is held in low esteem and Ayn Rand is actually considered a notable thinker by serious people in politics.I submit that a major reason for Peterson's popularity is his worldview, rather than...

Experts versus populists, bureaucracy versus democracy: Paul Tucker, former deputy governor of the Bank of England and a fellow at Harvard's John F Kennedy School of Government, chooses books that wrestle with the central dilemmas of today's liberal political order…. Important with respect to the paradoxes of liberalism that are are now coming to a head in the conflict between politics as usual and populism. Steven Bannon's chief target was the administrative state, which is bound up in the...

Liberalism reveals its illiberal underbelly as "liberal democracies' seek to control the narrative by limiting freedom of expression and press freedom in the attempt to limit freedom of thought, which is of the essence of totalitarianism.This push is being led by the US and France, the birthplaces of the revolutions that brought liberalism onto the world stage, and Britain as well, the birthday of liberal philosophy led by John Locke.Ironic betrayal. This is likely not malicious but rather...

Peter Dorman considers when liberalism needs to become illiberal, e.g., squelching dissent based on freedom of thought and expression, in order to protect itself. The question is where to draw boundaries and on what basis.EconospeakFreedom of Speech for Fascists?Peter Dorman | Professor of Political Economy, The Evergreen State College

Weekend reading on economic and political economy. Phil always has interesting things to say as a philosophical economist or economic philosopher.American AffairsUtilitarian Economics and the Corruption of ConservatismPhilip Pilkington

As relations worsen, US must realize Russia will not soon, if ever, become a liberal democracy.… Carried away by ahistorical reasoning, the U.S. believed its victory in the Cold War meant that Russia, like all other countries, had little choice but to adopt the liberal democratic free-market order that had brought prosperity and peace to the West.... The real problem is viewing this as problem. Probably no non-Western state will become a liberal democracy because it is not in accord with...