Category Archives: Politics – international

Democracy: doing it for ourselves

Posted on November 25, 2023 by Nicholas Gruen

Above is the video of a presentation I made at NESTA in London on 15th November with discussants Claire Mellior and Martin Wolf. I reproduce (AI generated) timestamps in the shownotes of the video below. 00:00 – Introduction and Overview … Continue reading →

Posted in Democracy, History, Innovation, Politics - international, Politics - national, Sortition and citizens’ juries | Leave a comment

Understanding the present by listening to the past: Walter Lippmann’s “The Public Philosophy”

Posted on April 27, 2023 by Nicholas Gruen

One way to get beneath the surface of what’s going on is to read people who were writing about issues, as they emerged rather than in more modern times when they’d become the norm and become infused in our commonsense.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Democracy, History, Political theory, Politics - international, Sortition and citizens’ juries, War and military | 1 Comment

How did the Chilean left crash their referendum?

Posted on March 12, 2023 by Nicholas Gruen

I’ve been looking for an explainer of what’s been going on in Chile and, thanks to Brad Delong for pointing it out. Of particular interest was the way a government won 55 percent of the vote and then held a … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics and public policy, Political theory, Politics - international | 6 Comments

John Gray on Andrew Sullivan’s Dishcast

Posted on March 6, 2023 by Nicholas Gruen

  I recommend the first 15 or 20 minutes of this podcast. Defs worth the listen as John Gray explains where he comes from — literally and intellectually and ideologically. His milieu is British working class and he got to … Continue reading →

Posted in Best From Elsewhere, Democracy, Politics - international | 2 Comments

Fighting political polarisation

Posted on February 18, 2023 by Nicholas Gruen

From this week’s Substack of mine. Thomas B. Edsall has an important writeup of research into reducing political polarisation. But to me it seems to be heading in an unhelpfully scientistic direction. Virtually all the researchers quoted examine the causal … Continue reading →

Posted in Democracy, Philosophy, Political theory, Politics - international, Sortition and citizens’ juries | Leave a comment

Polarisation and the Case for Citizens’ Juries

Posted on October 24, 2022 by Nicholas Gruen

Cross posted from Quillette from 16 Feb 2019, but now behind a paywall. When a conversation is not a conversation: party political discourse in the early 21st century I It looks like liberal democracy is falling apart. The chaos of … Continue reading →

Posted in Democracy, Ethics, Political theory, Politics - international, Sortition and citizens’ juries, Web and Government 2.0 | 6 Comments

Journalism as a system of domination: Peter Dutton edition

Posted on August 12, 2022 by Nicholas Gruen

.@FergusonNews asks Opposition Leader @PeterDutton_MP: What would prevent you now from taking the next step and that is backing the referendum on the Voice? #abc730 #auspol pic.twitter.com/ebAUd6uM7P — abc730 (@abc730) August 11, 2022 Peter Dutton is a human being. That’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Democracy, Media, Philosophy, Political theory, Politics - international, Politics - national | 1 Comment