Populism is currently attractive because it contains a grain of truth. If we want to be prepared for the post-populist period and hasten its coming, we must address these real issues.
A scholar raised by leftist San Francisco parents in the 1970s ends up teaching in the heartland, where her students represent a very different kind of politics. What she learns from them is profound.
The victory of a Democratic Socialist in a New York primary will not lead to the dictatorship of the proletariat. It’s an incremental addition to the long history of moderate socialism in the US.
Fears about the resurgence of fascism might have seemed irrelevant during the past 70 years, when it was discredited. It doesn’t seem irrelevant today with liberal democracy on the defensive.
Barack Obama was asked to give the Mandela Lecture because he represents what the global liberation struggle icon stood for. He struck the right chord.
There’s a lot that Richard Denniss gets right. Neoliberalism clearly has an array of problems. But he risks throwing out what is good about liberalism in attacking neoliberalism.
Robert F. Kennedy, assassinated 50 years ago, began his career as a conservative anti-communist. At the end of his life, he was transformed into a liberal who championed civil and workers’ rights.
Libertarianism is a minority concern in Australian politics, but it offers a philosophical framework to understand contemporary social and economic challenges.
There’s a new way to reveal America’s political divide. One researcher finds the differences between groups that are normally crudely described as ‘right-left’ can be better explained by word clouds.
As the National Party looks to rebuild under a new leader, it needs to embrace its minority status, establish clearly what it stands for, and remain true to those ideals.
From a certain perspective, we’re already on the road to practicing a ‘progressive eugenics’ not a million miles away from what was imagined historically.
Malcolm Turnbull’s claim that Robert Menzies’ party was meant to be one of the ‘sensible centre’ has some validity – but it may also be that that centre has shifted significantly, too.
Financial crises and soaring inequality fueled the populist backlashes that threaten neoliberalism’s core principles of free markets and free people. The world needs a new narrative to counteract it.
University authorities in South Africa have agreed to most fees protesters’ demands. Yet, the protesters keep moving the goalposts. Do they want more than fees to fall?
Chief Research Specialist in Democracy and Citizenship at the Human Science Research Council and a Research Fellow Centre for African Studies, University of the Free State