democracy

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• 1/22/2023
  

  The US is a Procedural, Not a Substantive, Democracy

  by Van Gosse

  "The United States is well on its way to becoming a strictly procedural democracy, wherein legal and constitutional norms are observed, but the core requirements for democratic decision-making—the rule of the majority, the right of all citizens to vote without hindrance—are ignored."

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• SOURCE: The Progressive
  1/3/2023
  

  Despite Aggressive Rebrand, Charles Koch is Still Fighting Against Democracy

  by Nancy MacLean and Lisa Graves

  The media have latched on to Charles Koch's recent expressions of regret over partisanship. But this is a rebranding, not a redirection. 

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• SOURCE: Nieman Lab
  1/10/2023
  

  The Good News and the Bad News about (Mis)Information – Historians Included

  Recent studies of media consumption and conspiracy theory adherence suggest misinformation is not terribly influential on political behavior. Unfortunately, neither is mythbusting, given the social and cognitive complexity of belief. 

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• SOURCE: L.A. Progressive
  12/26/2022
  

  Conflicting Values Explain Political Differences

  by Walter G. Moss

  From climate to war, differences in basic values are expressed in political conflict. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  12/19/2022
  

  Albion Tourgée's Forgotten Proposal for Power to the People

  by Brook Thomas

  The Black Republican activist hoped to draft a Reconstruction constitution for North Carolina that vested power in the people, which might have prevented the potential mischief that could be unleashed by Supreme Court cases that threaten to empower state legislatures to thwart democracy. 

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  12/2/2022
  

  Defending Democracy Will Mean Working Locally for the Common Good

  by Nell Irvin Painter

  Americans can fight both partisan dysfunction in Washington and the rise of authoritarianism and ethnic nationalism by working to advance the common good in their own communities, strengthening bonds of social solidarity. 

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  12/7/2022
  

  There's No Choice But to Fight for a Better America

  by Siva Vaidhyanathan

  "We often misdiagnose our current malady as one of 'polarization.' That’s wrong. We have one rogue, ethno-authoritarian party and one fairly stable and diverse party."

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• 12/4/2022
  

  While Decrying Election Denialists, Congress Can't Ignore the Need to Protect the Voting Rights Act

  by Gregory T. Moore

  The best way for a bipartsian coalition of lawmakers to demonstrate more than lip service to the values of democracy is to pass the Electoral Count Reform Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. 

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• SOURCE: Religion Dispatches
  11/17/2022
  

  DeSantis v. Trump: More Polish, Less Bombast, Same Threat to Democracy?

  by Annika Brockschmidt

  Conservatives appear eager to boost Ron DeSantis as a "normal" conservative without Trump's "big lie" baggage. Yet his political career is a monument to the pursuit of minority rule, from gerrymandering to voting rights. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  11/11/2022
  

  Why Direct Democracy is The Best Protection for Abortion Rights

  by Rachel Rebouché and Mary Ziegler

  Given the chance to vote directly on abortion rights, voters have been swayed by personal experience and shared stories to protect reproductive freedom and leave the choice in the hands of women, not politicians. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  10/6/2022
  

  Scholars: Election Denial Becoming Official Republican Policy

  Ruth Ben-Ghiat argues that the Big Lie is part of a process of normalizing the rejection of election results. 

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• SOURCE: NPR
  9/25/2022
  

  The Constitution's Support for Oligarchy

  Jonathan Gienapp says that the Framers made deliberate choices to make the Constitution a bulwark against what they saw as the danger of broad-based democracy. 

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• 9/25/2022
  

  Thinking and Teaching the Implications of Federalist #10 for Democracy

  by Jeff Schneider

  Teachers of Constitutional history must push their students to understand something difficult: James Madison's vision of the "public good" is a vision of elite rule that today stands in the way of democratic solutions to society's problems. 

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• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  9/17/2022
  

  Eric Foner on the Study of History and Democracy

  "I’m always interested in the connections between past and present. The questions that interest me historically tend to come out of the moment I’m living in."

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• SOURCE: Politico
  9/15/2022
  

  "Independent State Legislature" Legal Theory Based in Fake History

  Charles Pinckney's ideas for the Constitution were rejected by the framers. Years later, he produced fake documents to aggrandize his own role at the convention. Right-wing legal activists have used them to argue that state legislatures can decide election results however they want. 

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• SOURCE: PBS News Hour
  9/11/2022
  

  Rick Hasen: Moore v. Harper and its Potential Impact on Elections

  Major dark money donors have pushed a case to the Supreme Court that could allow state legislatures to overturn the will of voters to decide statewide elections and electoral college votes, says election law expert Rick Hasen. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  9/5/2022
  

  Can We Do Better than Liberal Democracy?

  by Adam Gopnik

  Critic Adam Gopnik examines two recent books on alternatives to representative democracy that respond to the recent use of institutions by power-seeking authoritarians. 

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• SOURCE: Substack
  8/28/2022
  

  The Democrats, Not the "Party of Lincoln," are the Best Hope to Protect Abe's Legacy

  by Eli Merritt

  Abraham Lincoln went to Washington as president-elect animated by the commitments to justice and liberty defined in the first Republican Party convention. If the Republicans won't honor these commitments, the Democrats must do it. 

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• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  8/22/2022
  

  Our Civics Education Can't Fight These Threats to Democracy

  by Eric Mlyn

  Educational institutions are already "politicized" by organized attacks by an authoritarian movement. They need to set aside the fear of controversy and assert themselves as defenders of democracy. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  8/15/2022
  

  American Democracy Wasn't Built to be Democratic

  by Louis Menand

  In a review essay of several books diagnosing the maladies of American democracy, Louis Menand concludes that the system itself is working as designed: to thwart popular rule.