Canadian writer and former politician currently professor of history at Central European University Vienna Address: CEU History Department Quellenstrasse 51-5 Vienna 1010
Democratic self-rule is an unending argument about what democracy is. In normal times, democracy ... more Democratic self-rule is an unending argument about what democracy is. In normal times, democracy reproduces its legitimacy by its routine operation. In times of political crisis, however, the defining issue of an election can become the commitment of adversaries to the rules of the democratic game. At such times, polarization can become lethal to the very system that both sides say they are committed to maintaining. All democracies could use serious institutional reform, but we will not begin unless we abandon the illusion that democracy's problems would be solved if we could just defeat authoritarian populists at the ballot box. It is our institutions, not just the players, that need changing.
However difficult, however foolish the enterprise may be, we can never resist trying to predict t... more However difficult, however foolish the enterprise may be, we can never resist trying to predict the future. Even though we ought to know better, we are all incorrigible crystal ball gazers. We want history to tell us not only how it was, but how it is going to be. But how are we to distinguish between short-term episodes — the media event — and long-term historical change? All we can say is that the more deeply rooted in the past a trend is, the more likely it is to continue in the future. Hence the sharper our historical sense, the more accurate our predictions are likely to be.
... There are some notable omissions, such as Ibrahim Rugova and Richard Holbrooke. ... Universit... more ... There are some notable omissions, such as Ibrahim Rugova and Richard Holbrooke. ... University of Florida history professor Maria Todorova explains this phenomenon by pointing out that Milosevic did not invent Serbian nationalism, but legitimate[d] its most extreme articulation ...
Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor argues that illnesses like cancer are harder to endure because... more Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor argues that illnesses like cancer are harder to endure because of the metaphors of dread that accompany them. Exiles experience a similar phenomenon. The real dimensions of the experience can be made harder by metaphors of dispossession and loss. Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory is a profound reflection on-and rebellion against-the metaphors that defined the Russian exile experience after 1917. This essay discusses the experience of the author's own family to examine how they struggled against the undertow of metaphor that shaped their experience of exile.
Democratic self-rule is an unending argument about what democracy is. In normal times, democracy ... more Democratic self-rule is an unending argument about what democracy is. In normal times, democracy reproduces its legitimacy by its routine operation. In times of political crisis, however, the defining issue of an election can become the commitment of adversaries to the rules of the democratic game. At such times, polarization can become lethal to the very system that both sides say they are committed to maintaining. All democracies could use serious institutional reform, but we will not begin unless we abandon the illusion that democracy's problems would be solved if we could just defeat authoritarian populists at the ballot box. It is our institutions, not just the players, that need changing.
This essay examines why academic freedom has become a defining issue in the geostrategic competit... more This essay examines why academic freedom has become a defining issue in the geostrategic competition between liberal democracies and their authoritarian challengers. The growing strategic rivalry between the United States and China is threatening to disrupt, even destroy, academic interchange between liberal and authoritarian societies. At the same time, populist right-wing leaders in Western democracies are attacking university autonomy, as part of a strategy of authoritarian consolidation. Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orbán has pursued an authoritarian takeover of his country's higher-education system while seeking new partnerships with Chinese institutions. Through this essay, I seek to explain why academic freedom faces unprecedented challenges, both within liberal democracies and from authoritarian competitors.
... George, Vic and Wilding, Paul, Globalization and Human Welfare (HONOR FAGAN), 129. ... commen... more ... George, Vic and Wilding, Paul, Globalization and Human Welfare (HONOR FAGAN), 129. ... commendable in the book, and some of the forays in the history of civil society theory are ... From his inductive examination of the crises in Iraq, Bosnia, Haiti, Rwanda, East Timor and Kosovo ...
Democratic self-rule is an unending argument about what democracy is. In normal times, democracy ... more Democratic self-rule is an unending argument about what democracy is. In normal times, democracy reproduces its legitimacy by its routine operation. In times of political crisis, however, the defining issue of an election can become the commitment of adversaries to the rules of the democratic game. At such times, polarization can become lethal to the very system that both sides say they are committed to maintaining. All democracies could use serious institutional reform, but we will not begin unless we abandon the illusion that democracy's problems would be solved if we could just defeat authoritarian populists at the ballot box. It is our institutions, not just the players, that need changing.
However difficult, however foolish the enterprise may be, we can never resist trying to predict t... more However difficult, however foolish the enterprise may be, we can never resist trying to predict the future. Even though we ought to know better, we are all incorrigible crystal ball gazers. We want history to tell us not only how it was, but how it is going to be. But how are we to distinguish between short-term episodes — the media event — and long-term historical change? All we can say is that the more deeply rooted in the past a trend is, the more likely it is to continue in the future. Hence the sharper our historical sense, the more accurate our predictions are likely to be.
... There are some notable omissions, such as Ibrahim Rugova and Richard Holbrooke. ... Universit... more ... There are some notable omissions, such as Ibrahim Rugova and Richard Holbrooke. ... University of Florida history professor Maria Todorova explains this phenomenon by pointing out that Milosevic did not invent Serbian nationalism, but legitimate[d] its most extreme articulation ...
Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor argues that illnesses like cancer are harder to endure because... more Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor argues that illnesses like cancer are harder to endure because of the metaphors of dread that accompany them. Exiles experience a similar phenomenon. The real dimensions of the experience can be made harder by metaphors of dispossession and loss. Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory is a profound reflection on-and rebellion against-the metaphors that defined the Russian exile experience after 1917. This essay discusses the experience of the author's own family to examine how they struggled against the undertow of metaphor that shaped their experience of exile.
Democratic self-rule is an unending argument about what democracy is. In normal times, democracy ... more Democratic self-rule is an unending argument about what democracy is. In normal times, democracy reproduces its legitimacy by its routine operation. In times of political crisis, however, the defining issue of an election can become the commitment of adversaries to the rules of the democratic game. At such times, polarization can become lethal to the very system that both sides say they are committed to maintaining. All democracies could use serious institutional reform, but we will not begin unless we abandon the illusion that democracy's problems would be solved if we could just defeat authoritarian populists at the ballot box. It is our institutions, not just the players, that need changing.
This essay examines why academic freedom has become a defining issue in the geostrategic competit... more This essay examines why academic freedom has become a defining issue in the geostrategic competition between liberal democracies and their authoritarian challengers. The growing strategic rivalry between the United States and China is threatening to disrupt, even destroy, academic interchange between liberal and authoritarian societies. At the same time, populist right-wing leaders in Western democracies are attacking university autonomy, as part of a strategy of authoritarian consolidation. Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orbán has pursued an authoritarian takeover of his country's higher-education system while seeking new partnerships with Chinese institutions. Through this essay, I seek to explain why academic freedom faces unprecedented challenges, both within liberal democracies and from authoritarian competitors.
... George, Vic and Wilding, Paul, Globalization and Human Welfare (HONOR FAGAN), 129. ... commen... more ... George, Vic and Wilding, Paul, Globalization and Human Welfare (HONOR FAGAN), 129. ... commendable in the book, and some of the forays in the history of civil society theory are ... From his inductive examination of the crises in Iraq, Bosnia, Haiti, Rwanda, East Timor and Kosovo ...
Harvard Center for European Studies Democracy Series, 2024
The strong state liberalism of the baby-boom generation is giving way to the liberalism of those ... more The strong state liberalism of the baby-boom generation is giving way to the liberalism of those who benefited from the revolution of inclusion. This new generation of liberalism--feminist, multicultural,pluralist and progressive--now faces a backlash from all those, especially white working class people, who believe they lost status. 21st century liberalism's challenge is to guarantee that the undoubted benefits of the revolution of inclusion are irreversible and are shared by all.
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