The Collapse Of The West: Chapter One: The Global Tectonic Shift
By J. Todd Ring Preface: I wrote this essay in January of 2020, then the covid crisis hit, and it was shelved for over a year. The macro-scale patterns have…
democracy
Constructive anarchism
Yale political scientist and anthropologist James C. Scott, author of the whimsical 2013 book Two Cheers for Anarchism, suggested pursuit of justice demands occasional insubordination and disregard for rules. He…
Politicization of Masks
If political leaders on the left feel like they can’t talk about the importance of N95s to prevent viruses, then points go to the far right, who started this anti-mask…
A loss for illiberalism, a gain for democracy
Generations of Communism is not the best training for democracy. So perhaps we shouldn’t have expected that when the Soviet Union collapsed under its own dead weight, the countries that…
What If We Had A Different Non-Political Form of Representative Government
I have been thinking about what a non-political from of representative government might look like and whether it could be considered democratic or not. One model came to mind, a…
What If We Had A Different Non-Political Form of Representative Government
I have been thinking about what a non-political from of representative government might look like and whether it could be considered democratic or not. One model came to mind, a…
What polarization?
Do conservatives like democracy? That may seem like an unfair question. And for many conservatives it may be. Bur it seems there are many who don’t, and they are very…
Sortition—assembling citizens
A recent essay in The New York Times prompts me once again to write about a favourite topic of mine, namely citizens’ assemblies. The essay, by Adam Grant, was entitled…
Harper reveals new conservative colours
Stephen Harper has recently been promoting closer ties between Canadian conservatives and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government. Harper is chair of the International Democrat Union, a global alliance of…
Happy birthday, US of A
Today our good neighbours to the south are celebrating their country’s birthday—its 247th. Two hundred and forty seven days of democracy, the longest ever. The second most famous democracy—ancient Athens—lasted…
Democracy Is Fine, Until It Isn’t
I don’t post on a daily basis anymore, partly because I have other things keeping me busy and partly because I do wonder if anything good can come from a…
Johnson, Trump and contrasting ethics
Boris Johnson and Donald Trump are two buffoons who embarrassed two major democracies by their election to national leadership. Both are now gone and much good riddance. Both are also…
Moving Beyond The Partisan
A couple of years ago, I expressed my disgust with partisan politics and proposed a model that is intended to break the connection between party discipline, insularity, and policy platforms.…
Electoral reform—to be or not to be?
Once again our hopes rise. Or do they? At their recent national policy convention the Liberals voted to back a citizens’ assembly on electoral reform. Specifically, the convention resolved that…
Murdoch/Fox called to account
Rupert Murdoch is a man whose lack of ethics should preclude him from being within shouting distance of journalism. Yet he is the world’s most powerful media mogul. He owns…
The victim of her own repeated blunders, Danielle Smith decrees a limit on reporters’ questions
It looks like Alberta’s going to need a Sam Donaldson in this election campaign. Former ABC White House Correspondent Sam Donaldson in 1995 (Photo: John Matthew Smith via Wikipedia). You…
Defending democracy through public engagement
In my years of political observation, I have come to realize that elected officials individually have little opportunity to influence public policy. At senior levels of government, power has concentrated…
Woke is not a slur
President Biden vetoed a measure that would have blocked fiduciary retirement fund managers from considering climate change, corporate governance and other factors when making pension investments…
Conservatives and the CBC
Pierre Poilievre has trotted out a recurrent theme in Conservative election platforms—he will “defund” the CBC. (Is “defund” a steal from woke-speak?) This is hardly surprising. The CBC is the…
What time is it?
Co-authors Mariana Mazzucato, Professor of economics at University College London, and economist Rosie Collington think democracy is endangered by the growing involvement of consultants in public policy development and implementation.