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• InI 10:34 on 9th July 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: brexit ( 36 ), democracy, NYT ( 120 )   

  Some Pundits Think the Solution to Right-Wing Populism Is Less Democracy 

  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.

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• InI 17:23 on 17th May 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: democracy, Polity IV, Vox ( 2 )   

  Vox’s CIA-Backed ‘Democracy’ Standard Is OK With Slavery and Women Not Voting 

  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.

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• InI 12:08 on 9th July 2014 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: democracy, participation ( 39 )   

  The Commons As a Fount of Hope By Richard Swift 

  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.

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• InI 15:41 on 3rd June 2014 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: democracy, franchise, popularism, representation, voting ( 3 ), xenophobia ( 18 )   

  EU Elections – Democracy’s Deep Crisis and the Rise of the Populist Right By Jan Oberg 

  3 June 2014 — Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research

  To perform rather than live democracy

  Fears has been expressed in Europe about the recent EU parliament voting pattern. Instead of the fear and denouncing the winners we should ask: What causes such an outcome?

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• InI 18:05 on 13th March 2014 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: democracy, Kilburn Manifesto, socialism ( 101 ), the state ( 157 )   

  Manifesto instalment out now: States of imagination 

  14 March 2014 – Lawrence and Wishart

  Out now: Next Soundings manifesto instalment

  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?

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• InI 11:23 on 15th January 2014 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: democracy, lobbying ( 12 ), participation ( 39 )   

  Parties, Causes and Political Power By Ben Little 

  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 this...

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• InI 12:01 on 14th January 2014 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: democracy, neoliberalism ( 92 ), Reagan ( 51 ), Thatcher ( 53 ), voodoo economics   

  Book Review: Voiding the rule By Carl Rolands 

  14 January 2014 — New Left Project

  Ruling the Void: The Hollowing of Western Democracy By Peter Mair. Verso, 2013.  

  When George H.W. Bush coined the term ‘voodoo economics’ to describe Ronald Reagan’s plan for Wall Street-inspired growth, he perhaps missed its inevitable corollary: the emergence of voodoo politics. Voodoo economics is based on a single article of faith: that the enrichment of a small minority automatically leads to broader enrichment and enfranchisement. It engenders a politics that is similarly centralised and built on minimal popular participation. In his posthumously published Ruling the Void, the political theorist Peter Mair meticulously documents what an enfeebled, anaemic ‘voodoo politics’ is beginning to look like, in a world where raw economic power reigns practically unchallenged. 

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• InI 16:19 on 8th November 2013 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: democracy, Government ( 196 ), lobbying bill ( 2 ), NGOs ( 57 ), parliament ( 47 ), Reform Society ( 3 ), resistance ( 102 ), Twitter ( 155 )   

  UK: Strength in numbers – we helped force a pause for the Lobbying Bill 

  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.

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• InI 16:25 on 30th October 2013 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: BBC ( 529 ), David Cromwell ( 27 ), democracy, interview ( 134 ), Jeremy Paxman ( 6 ), JP ( 21 ), New Statesman ( 21 ), paxman, revolution ( 227 ), russell brand ( 3 ), Twitter ( 155 )   

  Media Lens: Launchpad For A Revolution? Russell Brand, The BBC And Elite Power By David Cromwell 

  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.

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• InI 14:46 on 12th October 2013 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: BBC ( 529 ), Biafra, democracy, election ( 185 ), harold smith ( 3 ), Nigeria ( 53 ), Northern Peoples Congress, the Independent ( 74 )   

  Nigeria: Hidden Histories By William Bowles 

  24 June 2006 — williambowles.info

  Harold Smith, who died 3 January 2010 is almost unknown except for the few who are aware of his courageous and lifelong struggle to expose the murderous duplicity of British Imperialism in Nigeria. Smith, in 1960 then a novice, young colonial administrator in Nigeria attempted to expose the rigged and phoney ‘independence’ that the British had foisted on the Nigerian people. I wrote this back in 2006 and given all the current events in Africa, I felt it worthwhile reprinting it. There is also a followup piece, ‘Hidden histories confirmed: So much for the ‘Mother of Parliaments’‘, that I wrote a couple of years later. There is also a tribute page to Harold here. WB Continue reading this...

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  Valentine Anthony is discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • Valentine Anthony 09:41 on 14th October 2013 Permalink | Reply

    An interesting and informative piece. It reminds me of my days in the then Malaya, now Malaysia, and Singapore under British colonialism. I would like to add few quotes and 2 books for the benefit of readers:

    On British colonialism: “corruption and imperial bigotry in a society where, after all, natives were natives – interesting, no doubt, but finally…an inferior people.” George Orwell, Burma Days, 1934.

    The responsibility for governing India had been placed by the inscrutable decree of providence upon the shoulders of the British race—Rudyard Kipling

    The loss of India would be final and fatal to us. It could not fail to be part of a process that would reduce us to the scab of a minor power—Winston Churchill to the House of Commons, February 1931

    Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge….At the stroke of the midnight hour, while the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance….. Jawaharlal Nehru to the Indian Constituent Assembly, New Delhi, August 14, 1947

    1. Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapeirre, 1976
    2. The Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru,