Editor’s note: On the occasion of Independence Day, we felt it appropriate to reprint, from our Australian edition, the remarks of University of Sydney political thinker and writer John Keane on why Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America – 180...
Read MoreOriginally published on ABC The World Today 2 July 2015 Greece's Prime Minister is vowing to press ahead with a controversial bailout referendum as European leaders rule out any fresh debt offer before Sunday's vote. The World Today spoke to John...
Read MoreThe Law of the European Union Universiteit Leiden Last week’s visit to Berlin, peppered by many intensely interesting conversations, convinced me of one thing: Europe is beginning to resemble a political madhouse. Jan Zielonka’s brief but brilliant Is the EU Doomed? offers...
Read MoreSince the last time we were together inside his prison lodgings at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, a few things have changed. Julian Assange has grown a beard, looks more pallid and pauses when I ask after his general health. His legal team are...
Read More‘Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must be silent’, wrote the young Ludwig Wittgenstein in his Tractatus (1921). The words are now famous, but in matters of politics the elegant last-sentence formula of his key early work must be doubted,...
Read More[caption id="attachment_9806" align="alignnone" width="800"] Acampada, Barcelona, 21/05/1011[/caption] The following notes on the future of democratic representation were inspired by Simon Tormey’s The end of representative politics (2015), launched at a Gleebooks event organised by the Sydney Democracy Network (SDN), May 15th...
Read MoreThe following remarks on a famous work by Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 - 1859) were presented as a lecture to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Scholars Program at the University of Sydney, 24th April, 2015. The young aristocrat Alexis...
Read More
On the eve of the collapse of the Soviet empire, the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama surfed to fame after pronouncing the global victory of the idea of American-style ‘liberal democracy’. Nearly three decades later, things look grim for his...
Read MoreSingapore is facing political uncertainty with the dominating figure of Lee Kuan Yew in hospital on life support and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, undergoing surgery for cancer last week. Their People’s Action Party (PAP) has ruled the...
Read MoreHong Kong Chief Executive, C. Y. Leung (centre), enjoying a photo opportunity where he wished all Hong Kong citizens ‘good health, great happiness and a harmonious family life’. Chief Executive/February 18, 2015 Hong Kong’s Chief Executive C.Y. Leung rang in the Lunar...
Read More