Over at The American Prospect, I have a piece up based on the research I did while studying political liberalism in China (courtesy of a fellowship from the U.S. Fulbright program). As part of my research, I interviewed liberal scholars, … Continue reading
Lilia Shevtsova has an essay in The American Interest arguing that American liberals, and Western liberals in general, are no longer a model for liberal reformers around the world: The way liberal democracies are currently trying to revitalize themselves raises … Continue reading
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is the latest to jump on the Gross National Happiness bandwagon: The ultimate purpose of economics, of course, is to understand and promote the enhancement of well-being. Economic measurement accordingly must encompass measures of well-being and … Continue reading
Danwei has an interview with Sidney Rittenberg, the first American citizen to join the Chinese Communist Party. Rittenberg lived in China from 1944 to 1975, and spent the time alternating between serving as an adviser to China’s leaders and serving … Continue reading
In a new piece over at The American Prospect, I look at how the political winds have shifted enough that we now have a Democratic political candidate (i.e. President Obama) using abortion as a wedge issue to attack a Republican. … Continue reading
The tiny, ethnically Greek town of Corigliano d’Otranto in Italy has created a new position: an officially designated “Municipal Philosopher,” who hangs around City Hall for philosophical consultation between 3pm and 7pm on Fridays: Lupo [the first one to hold the … Continue reading
On Monday, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press released its Trends in American Values report, a survey that the Center has been conducting since 1987 to determine where Americans stand on 48 “political values” like national security, … Continue reading
There’s a new blog in town: The Mischiefs of Faction. It’s written by a group of academics with political experience, “devoted to advancing and debating our knowledge of political parties,” and looks great. The name comes from James Madison’s Federalist … Continue reading
When I started this blog, one challenge was figuring out how to differentiate its subject matter from the kind of “politics” writing that focuses on campaigns and politicians. I settled on “political ideas” as the catch-all phrase, but I wanted … Continue reading
Pankaj Mishra reviews Tony Judt’s posthumous Thinking the Twentieth Century, bringing up some of Judt’s criticisms of modern liberalism that resonate with yesterday’s quote from Fukuyama. As the global recession deepened, Judt also recognised that the liberals promoting democracy abroad … Continue reading
