‘When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called the People’s Stick.’ Mikhail Bakunin, Statism and Anarchy (1873) Populism is in the air: it’s the topic of the moment, the subject everybody wants...
Read MoreLos nuevos despotismos: imaginando el fin de la democracia* Resumen Este ensayo nos proponemos plantear una nueva perspectiva acerca de una tendencia inquietante que está configurando nuestro mundo en estos primeros años del siglo xxi: el auge del despotismo. Nos preguntamos si...
Read MoreThis is the slightly rewritten text of my address to the opening plenary session, ‘New Enlightenment Neue Aufklärung’, at the European Forum Alpbach, Alpbach, Austria, 28 August 2016. European Forum Alpbach, Austria Ladies and Gentlemen, Citizens and Citizenesses: The disintegration of Europe that...
Read MoreEarlier parts of this series on capitalism and democracy raised questions about the tense and often contradictory relationship between capitalist markets and the egalitarian spirit and power-humbling institutions of democracy. Each contribution has pointed out that we shouldn’t be surprised...
Read MorePart two of this series on capitalism and democracy introduced the unusual idea of ‘democracy failure’. Instead of seeing democracy as the hapless victim of capitalist markets, as Marxists and others have typically done in the past, it examined the...
Read MoreThis article is part of the Democracy Futures series, a joint global initiative with the Sydney Democracy Network. The project aims to stimulate fresh thinking about the many challenges facing democracies in the 21st century. The essay is the first...
Read MorePart one of this series on capitalism and democracy probed the famous remark of the American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen that there are historical moments when ‘democratic sovereignty’ is converted into ‘a cloak to cover the nakedness of a...
Read MoreWritten several days ago, the following thoughts on the unfolding crisis in Turkey began their strange life as a tweet. It read: ‘failed Turkish coup shows that in the age of communicative abundance power doesn’t rest only on guns, tanks,...
Read MoreLet’s begin with a discomforting fact often forgotten in recent years: ‘free market’ capitalism is not necessarily the best friend of democracy. Since the early years of the 19th century, especially during periods of economic stagnation and mass unemployment, the...
Read MoreFinally. The finest hour. The day for which all brave and self-respecting Britons have long been waiting. Referendum Day. The pub happy hour when the proud People living under the Union Jack seize their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make things better....
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