Tag: Democracy
-
Democracy Is a Pesky Thing
Newsweek: Democracy Is a Pesky Thing … A good bit of the interview had been about the role of ideological bias in the media, and I had expressed my view that most Americans are completely capable of sorting through the conflicting viewpoints that come from various outlets in order to arrive at sound conclusions. Or,…
-
Prosperity: The Laws and Charters Instrument
Paul Collier lists four instruments for addressing poverty in The Bottom Billion. We have looked at aid and military intervention. We turn now to the third instrument, laws and charters. Collier writes that far too often, “…the rich countries have been a safe haven for the criminals of the bottom billion.” (136) The idea of…
-
Giving Globally: Democracy
Newsweek: Democracy: If You Want to Free Your Country, First Liberate Its Land This is the first in a five-part series that Newsweek did in last week's edition on "Giving Globally." I'll post each essay separately over the next five days. Democracy: If You Want to Free Your Country, First Liberate Its Land So you…
-
Two Arguments for Democratic Failure that Don’t Convince Me
Econlog (Bryan Caplan): Two Arguments for Democratic Failure that Don't Convince Me Public choice scholars often say that democracy underperforms the market because of: 1. Infrequent choice. In the market, consumers can continuously change their minds. In politics, however, voters are stuck with their choice until the next election. 2. Bundled choice. In the market,…
-
A Chinese experiment in democracy meets fierce resistance
Christian Science Monitor: A Chinese experiment in democracy meets fierce resistance Huiguan, China – When Fang Zhaojuan began organizing her neighbors here to impeach village leaders whom she suspected of corruption, she had no idea that the challenge would lead her first to the hospital and then to jail. She was following the law, after…
-
The End of History
Beau Weston has a great post a classroom discussion on Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History." At the end of his post, Weston writes: …In the same way, Fukuyama, another kind of Hegelian, identifies democracy and capitalism as the best ways of organizing society without having any vision of what the aim or end of…
-
Interviews with Mark Lange on Ending Poverty
Recently Josh Burek, Opinion Editor for the Christian Science Monitor, interviewed Mark Lange on ending poverty. Each is about two minutes. Very informative! Poverty: the big picture Capitalism's role in ending poverty Changing readers' minds Democracy's role in ending poverty Religion's role in ending poverty What action readers can take What makes him most worried…
-
Democracy’s Global Crisis: Not the Promised Cure-All
Democracy's Global Crisis: Not the Promised Cure-All is an interesting piece by Ralph Peters on attempts to spread democracy throughout the world. He voices many of my concerns. Democracy isn't "over." It's only beginning. No other system of government approaches its potential for decency, opportunity and equity. But democracy is also hard. Those who prescribed…
-
Does democracy end tyranny?
Does democracy end tyranny? is a piece by Natan Sharansky in the Los Angeles Times. Sharansky is "a distinguished fellow at the Shalem Center in Israel, is a former Soviet dissident who spent nine years in a KGB prison. Later, he served as a member of the Israeli government." Today, many people believe that the…