By Josiah Mortimer: Proposals sneaked out during the reshuffle last month represent a big step backwards for voter choice and democracy in England and Wales.
The plans, revealed exclusively in the PM’s former employer, the Telegraph, would see the current preference-based Supplementary Vote method used to elect Mayors and Police and Crime Commissioners removed and First Past the Post imposed.
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1 June 2021 — The New Dark Age
Eric Zuesse
[Of course, this ‘poll’ depends on what definition of ‘democracy’ the polled accept. And then there’s the technics of conducting the poll, the questions asked and who was polled, so all in all, I’d suggest that the results tell us more about the institution doing the polling, NATO, than the polled, and anyway, why is NATO conducting this poll in the first place and then NOT revealing the findings to the publics at large? WB]
A NATO front organization recently released their polling report “Democracy Perception Index 2021”, and its poll-findings in the 53 surveyed countries contradict more than confirm what NATO’s own propaganda routinely asserts; so, though these findings are major news, they are suppressed, instead of publicized, by NATO, and are practically a secret NATO poll. These rankings are published here for the very first time; they weren’t published, at all, in the NATO-affiliated report, but I calculated them from the data, which were published (and even those data were suppressed by the polls’ sponsors).
11 May 2021 — MROnline
by Pedro Caban
On April 14, 2021 the House Committee on Natural Resources held hearings on two competing bills to end Puerto Rico’s colonial status. The different bills reflect the changing political dynamics in the archipelago, as well as the Puerto Rican diaspora’s growing political clout. H.R.1522, the Puerto Rican State Admission Act, binds Congress to admit Puerto Rico into the Union if a majority vote in favor of doing so in a special referendum. H.R. 2070, the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act, authorizes the insular legislature to convene a semi-permanent status convention where elected delegates decide on alternative self-determination options that are “outside the territorial clause of the constitution.” The bill creates a bilateral negotiating commission of U.S. government officials and the convention delegates. In a referendum, voters will select a territorial option, which may include statehood, independence and sovereign free association. The bill requires that Congress “approve a joint resolution to ratify the preferred self-determination option” approved in a referendum. Commonwealth (or Estado Libre Asociado–ELA in Spanish) is not included as an option in this status bill.
10 December 2020 — True Publica
By TruePublica:
“New laws to curb protests which threaten democracy” is quite the phrase. We have a five-yearly democratic event which hands absolute power to the Government. In the years that follow, the right to protest is all there is of democracy. Be very afraid.”
These are the words of Joe Maugham QC – director of the Good Law Project, barrister and Honourary Professor at Durham Law School.
8 June 2020 — American Herald Tribune
11 January 2020 — See You in 2020
Illustration by Andrzej KrauzeLowering the voting age. Restoring and entrenching the powers of local government, including the power to build public housing. Ensuring that people are able to fulfil their potential (including outlawing many of the practices of the gig economy that drive its workers to suicide). Establishing a proportional election system, so that voters have a real choice and their votes make a difference.
31 May 2019 — Internationalist 360°
Martha Lia Grajales, founder and organizer of the Unidos San Agustin Convive cooperative. (Venezuelanalysis)
Martha Lia Grajales is part of the Surgentes Collective (a human rights organization) and a founding member of the San Agustin Convive cooperative. She is a lawyer, holding a master’s in human rights and democracy. In this interview, we ask her questions about the dialectic between state power and popular organization, with a view to understanding how grassroots initiatives might breath new life into the socialist project.
25 July 2018 — TRNN
Cuba’s National Assembly passed a new draft constitution, to replace its existing Soviet-era constitution via national referendum in a few months. Many changes are in the works, including the recognition of private property and gay marriage. But will it mean real change? We discuss the constitution with Prof. Liz Dore and James Early (inc. transcript) Continue reading
8 July 2016 — FAIR
The core orthodoxies of neoliberalism are under attack by populist forces, and commentators are scrambling for a response. Some are suggesting more left-wing red meat. Others, a moment of self-reflection. But a number of pundits are doing that most noxious of political commentary pastimes—equating right and left responses to the failures of globalization and advocating that “elites” should fight back against the forces of inconvenient democracy.
17 May 2016 — FAIR
Defining democracy is a notoriously difficult thing, but much is revealed by how media outlets choose to do so.
One popular metric is called “Polity IV”—a methodology created by the Center for Systemic Peace, headed by Dr. Monty G. Marshall of Georgetown University, which has been cited in prestigious outlets like the Washington Post and New York Times. But few outlets have embraced the method as enthusiastically as the “news explainer” site Vox.
9 July 2014 — The Bullet Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 1006
The commons is not just a battlefield between corporate predators and those who resist them – it is also a source of hope for those willing to imagine a world beyond capitalism. It represents a space between the private market and the political state in which humanity can control and democratically root our common wealth. Both the market and the state have proved inadequate for this purpose. In different ways, they have both led to a centralization of power and decision-making. Both private monopolies and state bureaucracies have proved incapable of maintaining the ecological health of the commons or managing the fair and equitable distribution of its benefits.
14 March 2014 – Lawrence and Wishart
States of imagination (PDF)
Janet Newman and John Clarke
Many people associate the state with bureaucracy or even repression, and have no time for current politicians. But the state also looks after us – in hospitals, schools, social services – and could enable us to better control unscrupulous business and banks. Can we imagine a more responsive state?
15 January 2014 — Soundings
By the time the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill was published in summer 2013 it had become little more than a brutal attempt to shut down civil society influence on electoral politics. Any work in the public domain that could be seen to address matters of public policy would be covered by far stricter rules than previously; but corporate lobbying would be virtually untouched. Continue reading
8 November 2013 — Electoral Reform Society
Thanks!
This week, after months of resistance, the Government was forced to concede that Part 2 of its Lobbying Bill cannot proceed through Parliament without a pause to consult the civil society organisations which will be affected by it.
30 October 2013 — Media Lens
When someone with interesting things to say is granted a high-profile media platform, it is wise to listen to what is being said and ask why they have been given such a platform. Comedian and actor Russell Brand’s 10-minute interview by Jeremy Paxman on BBC’s Newsnight last week was given considerable advance publicity and generated enormous reaction on social media and in the press, just as those media gatekeepers who selected Brand to appear would have wished.
7 October 2013 — Truthout
On September 18, hip-hop artist Pavlos Fyssas, a.k.a. Killah P, was stabbed outside a bar in Keratsini, Greece.
Larry Summers has an air-tight alibi. But I don’t believe it.
Larry didn’t hold the knife: The confessed killer is some twisted member of Golden Dawn, a political party made up of skin-head freaks, anti-immigrant fear-mongers, anti-Muslim/ anti-Semitic/ anti-Albanian sociopaths and ultra-patriot fruitcakes. Think of it as the Tea Party goes Greek.
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13 September 2013 — The Real News Network
Aleksandr Buzgalin: Putin’s aims in Syria through a domestic lens
13 September 2013 — The Bullet • Socialist Project E-Bulletin No. 877
Why did ‘real socialism’ and, in particular the Soviet Union, fall? Let me note a few explanations that have been offered. With respect to the Soviet Union, one very interesting explanation that has been suggested is that it’s all the fault of Mikhail Gorbachev. And not simply the errors of Gorbachev but the treachery. Those who offer this explanation rely in particular upon a document which is sometimes described as his confession. This document begins as follows:
11 September 2013 — NSA
Kissinger pressed Nixon to overthrow the democratically elected Allende government because his “‘model’ effect can be insidious,” documents show
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The New Dark Age 