archive

Our political moment

Freedom is receding around the world — and a less liberal world is also a more dangerous one. From Commentary, Sohrab Ahmari on illiberalism: The worldwide crisis. Pushing back against the tyrants: Suzanne Nossel on how to counter the alarming authoritarian assault on civil society groups. Liz Cookman is frightened by the nationalism that’s been unleashed in Turkey. “Your country just killed dozens of Syrian civilians and Turkey is in grips of historic purge but this is the news”. Is Hillary’s hashtag-friendly feminism all that stands between us and the apocalypse? Melissa Gira Grant wants to know. Will the United States survive the 2016 election? Sandy Levinson wonders (and part 2). Who will win the upcoming civil war? No, the United States is not headed toward a race war. Jason Willick on how Samuel Huntington predicted our political moment: In 2004, the eminent political scientist offered key insights into the nationalist-cosmopolitan divide at the heart of our society.

Think governments are a mess? Markets don’t — there’s violence, instability and stagnation, true, yet there’s also a lot of faith in sovereign bonds. Something’s odd about the political betting markets: Brexit, Trump — the once-reliable prediction markets have misfired of late; here’s why. What do the coup attempt in Turkey, Donald Trump’s US presidential candidacy, the Brexit referendum, and the rise of populist parties in France, Germany, and elsewhere have in common? They all reflect deep anxieties among many citizens about the functioning of their democracies and the openness of their societies. Peter Pomerantsev on Trump, Brexit, Putin and why we live in a post-fact age. The world is taking its revenge against elites: Despite the shocks — Brexit, Trump, Dallas — a complacent political class shows no sign of changing its venal ways; the consequences will be dire.

What is a constant cycle of violent news doing to us? Tyler Cowen on how bad moods are the other global migration problem. Dani Rodrik on the surprising thing about the backlash against globalization. The world is better than you think in 10 powerful charts.