Given the scale of poverty and inequality in contemporary Britain (and indeed in the United States), no right-thinking person can presumably be fully happy with the organization of a system of rewards that leaves so many people under daily and severe financial pressure, keeping the millennial generation struggling to enjoy in their 20s even the […]
Standard Dilemmas Of Centre-Left Politics
On a day-to-day basis, it is hard to break free of a mindset dominated in the UK by the details of the Brexit negotiations or in the United States by the tweeting of an emotionally volatile president. But in both political systems, the normal rhythm of elections fortunately persists – and because it does, mid-term […]
Democratic Primaries In The Shadow Of Neoliberalism
The Democratic Party primary battle between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is being fought in the shadow of “neoliberalism” – in the shadow, that is, of the economic policies and general economic philosophy successfully espoused by Ronald Reagan in the United States and by Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom. Neoliberalism is that economic philosophy […]
America’s War On Poverty, America’s War On The Poor
January 2014 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the State of the Union Address in which Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty. This anniversary is leading to much soul-searching here in the United States. Partly that soul-searching reflects the high levels of poverty that persist in contemporary America. The US does not define the poverty […]
The Last Remaining Pillar Of The New Deal Era Is Increasingly Endangered
New Deal – In the UK, pension reform is controversial enough, though it rarely occupies centre-stage for long and there is often common ground between the parties. In the US, by contrast, the reform of Social Security is a perennial political issue, and it is now heavily partisan in nature. The language of pension reform […]
Negative Freedom Or Positive Freedom: Time To Choose?
In the seemingly never-ending battle over the scope of government in America – on issues from gun control and climate change to federal spending and the Affordable Care Act – opponents of active government regularly mix detailed criticism of immediate policy consequences with more general arguments about the erosion of basic freedoms. In doing the […]
Like Father, Like Son? Ralph Miliband’s Political Legacy
In the wake of the Daily Mail furor, those of us fortunate enough to have known Ralph Miliband as both an intellectual and a political activist recognize well enough that having him as your father is not a negative for any leader of the Labour Party. It is very much a plus. Quite contrary to […]
Swopping Conservatives
American conservatism has shifted so far to the right we almost need a new term to describe it. Watching David Cameron & Co. dealing with UKIP and the rise of Nigel Farage, it struck me again how much we are divided by a common language; and so how vital it is, if we are ever […]
Gridlock In Washington: Conservative Heaven!
Conservative populism is flourishing in America as rapid change and media hysteria cultivate the politics of fear. As must now be blindingly obvious to anyone following the international news, American politics is not like Western European politics. In the United States, popular outrage does not turn rapidly into responsive public policy. Governments do not move […]
A Progressive Second Obama Term? (II) Possibilities
Two previous recent postings explored the parameters and the prerequisites for a progressive second presidential term for Barack Obama. Each of those postings triggered three broad responses from a largely skeptical audience. One broad response, from conservative or libertarian bloggers, was that since progressive answers to America’s contemporary ills could only make those ills worse, the hope […]
A Progressive Second Obama Term? (I) Prerequisites
Amid the scampering up and down the fiscal cliff that has recently dominated political life in Washington, some more important and basic questions are in danger of vanishing from view, questions about the general character and progressive potential of Barack Obama’s second term. Questions such as these. Will this administration in the end prove to […]
David Coates on the US Presidential Election 2012
Watch Professor David Coates (Wake Forest University) discuss the upcoming US Presidential election with Dr Henning Meyer, Editor of Social Europe Journal. You might also be interested in David’s recent appearance on an interesting panel on MSNBC.