An extended interview with the political theorist who argues that liberal democracy is in grave danger. Ngaire Woods, dean of the Blavatnik School at Oxford, speaks to Harvard scholar Yascha Mounk. He says that across a wide sample of countries in North America and Western Europe, citizens of mature democracies have become markedly less satisfied with their form of government and surprisingly open to nondemocratic alternatives. "A serious democratic disconnect has emerged. If it widens even further, it may begin to challenge the stability of seemingly consolidated democracies."
22 July 2017
openDemocracy: An ideal conflict on the Dniester
On 21 July 1992, the armed conflict in Transnistria came to an end. A Russian peacekeeping mission was introduced to this self-declared republic on the east bank of the Dniester river, internationally recognised as Moldovan territory. After a quarter of a century, Chișinău and Tiraspol still haven’t agreed on a final settlement to the conflict. Nevertheless, both Moldova and breakaway Transnistria often interact with each other as though they were still one state. [...]
Twenty-five years have passed since the end of the war, but Moldova and Transnistria seem no closer to a political settlement to the conflict. Both sides are conducting drawn-out negotiations under the 5+2 format (in which Moldova and Transnistria are recognised the conflicting parties, the OSCE, Russia and Ukraine as mediators, and the EU and US as observers), in which they generally discuss economic and humanitarian issues. So far negotiators haven’t even pressed the key matter: whether Transnistria will be included in a united Moldova. [...]
Moscow prefers not to recognise Tiraspol’s dream of annexation. But negotiations for a settlement to the conflict stand still. Their dynamic can be summed up with one simple fact: since the beginning of this year, not one summit for negotiations in the 5+2 format has been held. Russia and Tiraspol have called for another round of negotiations on several occasions, but Austria, which presides over the OSCE this year, is categorically against. Vienna believes that negotiations should not be held for their own sake, insisting that they must end with concrete agreements. And that’s a result nobody can guarantee. [...]
There are more than 300,000 Moldovan passport holders on the left bank of the Dniester, and this number is constantly rising, given that Moldova entered into a visa-free regime with the EU in 2014. Even Transnistrian public officials take Moldovan citizenship. Transnistrian athletes participate in international competitions under the Moldovan flag, and are members of the national team. Tiraspol’s football club, Sherif, has won the Moldovan league several times over. For landlines and mobile, Transnistria uses the Moldovan international telephone code.
Haaretz: For Israel's Jews and Arabs to Truly Coexist, This Is What Needs to Happen
Budgetary equality is an essential condition for the creation of a better reality. The Arab citizens and their leadership, together with Jewish partners and civil-society organizations – such as Sikkuy: The Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality, of which I am the co-director, together with Rawnak Natour – have for years waged a persistent struggle against budgetary discrimination. That struggle is not yet over, but the data show that even alongside the government’s discriminatory policy, and even in the shadow of the political attacks on and the inflammatory rhetoric used against Arab citizens – the effort to achieve material equality has scored considerable successes in recent decades. There’s been a slow, consistent process of narrowing the material disparities between Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens. That’s good news, and if we wish to promote true equality, it’s better not to deny it. The road to equality is difficult and complicated, but with regard to material resources – budgets and land – it’s relatively easy to define what equality is. [...]
For Jews and Arabs to see this place as a joint homeland and to promote a shared society, a few things need to happen. First, increasing representations of a shared society and joint spaces must be created. Second, education for shared society and the teaching of both languages must be a significant part of the Hebrew and Arab educational systems, from kindergarten through high school. This is more important than mathematics, and it’s worth moving quickly in order to take advantage of the fact that Arabic is the mother tongue – or the mother tongue of one of the parents – of the majority of Israel’s citizens.
Third, the Arab citizens must become part of the decision-making process in Israel, including in the government. And fourth, it is impossible to advance a shared society while the occupation of the Palestinian people in the territories continues. A society in which the majority operates a military regime against members of the minority cannot be a shared society. [...]
But we must also not flinch from acknowledging the harsh truths: namely, that the primary challenge is to advance an equal, shared society amid a reality of inequality and discrimination in almost every sphere; the exclusion of Arab citizens; continuing governmental incitement against them; a deep dispute over how the state is to be defined; and the strengthening of the anti-Palestinian Jewish extreme right wing and of voices in the Arab community that oppose Arab-Jewish partnership. And then there’s the elephant in the room: the solid, stable Jewish majority that is unwilling to forgo prioritized national rights for Jews – in symbols, in the definition of the state and in immigration rights.
Haaretz: 'The Fantasy That He Dies Is a Terrible Burden': The Women Who Regret Motherhood
In recent years, the regularizing functions of time and our perception of time as a linear, progressive axis have been reconsidered in the field of queer theory. For example, Lee Edelman’s 2004 study “No Future” (Duke University Press), demonstrates how the image of “the child” has become a symbol embodying “heterosexual time,” a future that glorifies productivity and reproduction (as differentiated from “queer” time, which stands still). According to Edelman, this symbol has been put to use by both anti-abortion movements and efforts to enact anti-homosexual legislation, whose supporters put forward the argument that they are defending the future of children and the family in order to justify themselves. Donath adds an important element to this sphere of research in her book by positing the constant looking back that regret can evoke on this axis, which goes in only one direction. [...]
In light of all this, women who regret having become mothers, who refuse to repress that regret and “move forward,” are seemingly rebelling against the laws of physics, or, more precisely, against social and political conventions. They are turning their back on the deep conviction of the commenter “Mark” and of many others, which equates children with a better future, and insists that whether you wanted children or not, if you wait long enough you will see that in the end “it will be alright” and you, too, will fall in love with motherhood. [...]
While creating a protected space for the contradictions in the interviewees’ experiences and the contradictions inherent in the stance of regret itself, Donath is also sharply critical of the contradictions she identifies in the system of messages conveyed by society and its institutions. She is very good at describing the catch in the neoliberal approach, which on the one hand promises freedom of choice to be who and what we want, “liberated” from the burden of biological determinism, but on the other hand demands that this choice lead us to opt for children, as “wise consumers.” In other words, women are permitted to be included in the rhetoric of free choice, but the result always seems to be the same: Whether women are perceived as being obligated by nature or liberated from it, they are obligated to be mothers. [...]
The prevailing belief, expressed by some of the interviewees as well, is that the difficulty – certainly the regret – must be concealed, for the sake of appearing “normative” and protecting the children. As Donath shows, such a sophisticated method of silence is created primarily to safeguard the policy that urges childbirth; that is, to protect the institutions that are dependent on this policy: religion, army, market forces. Do we women want to play the role of guardians of these institutions? Do we have a choice? And, as Donath asks: While we are protecting them, who is protecting the mothers? That last question actually has an answer: I think Donath wants to protect them.
Political Critique: Autocracy wasn’t built in a day: How PiS build their regime bill by bill
The current assault on the independence of the judiciary by Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has drawn thousands of people to the streets. This attack has rightly been denounced as undermining the principle of separation of powers and the system of checks and balances. However, rather than interpreting it either as an assault on the republican and liberal democratic principles in the search for unrestrained power, or a blitzkrieg against the courts (the standard liberal democratic criticisms), it should be viewed as an element of a broad and comprehensive regime change. It is the latest – but probably not the last – step in the so-called “good change” PiS have been busy with since their electoral victory in 2015. [...]
The changes also blur the boundaries between different branches, as the executive extends its reach over others and becomes involved in their functioning. Importantly, and again as recent political practice has shown, in this PiSocracy, elections are reduced to a plebiscite and electoral victory is considered a mandate to pursue whatever policies the winner desires, despite potential opposition and criticism. At the same time, civic engagement is to be limited to cheering at state-sponsored rallies, like the one organized to welcome Donald Trump or the hate shows during the monthlies of the Smolensk crash, and any independence non-governmental associations might have will be diminished. [...]
Ironically, however, the way in which this change is implemented simply destroys state institutions. In a revolutionary fervor, loyalty to the party is favored over competence – crown examples of which are Julia Przyłębska, the chief justice of the Constitutional Tribunal who does not even have a doctorate in law or Bartłomiej Misiewicz, the ex-spokesman of the Ministry of Defense who has not even finished college despite studying at three different schools. In the propaganda war against the still independent institutions, the regime targets their prestige and legitimacy. Finally, the constitutionally defined hierarchy of power has been replaced by party hierarchy.
America Magazine: Ohio artist restores religious statues, stirs memories of closed parishes
The statues are among dozens that have been carefully restored by Lou McClung, a professional artist, who has made it his vocation—and avocation—to preserve artifacts from closed churches in Northeast Ohio and elsewhere. He displays them in what is now a 7-year-old venture called the Museum of Divine Statues.
The museum is housed in the former St. Hedwig Church, which served Poles in this west side, inner-ring suburb of Cleveland. McClung opened the museum six years ago with a small number of statues and artifacts. It has burgeoned to a thoughtfully designed exhibition space with more than 200 artifacts that include reliquaries, crucifixes, a monstrance from Germany and stained-glass windows. [...]
Running the nonprofit museum takes time and money, McClung admitted. Between his business and the museum, he usually works 85 hours a week. With no professional staff, McClung is curator, director, fundraiser and chief communicator for the museum. He depends on his mother, stepfather and a few friends—all volunteers—to carry out much of the museum's operation.
Politico: Protests in Warsaw as government moves on courts
PiS remains Poland’s most popular party, relying on support from older, conservative and rural voters. A new poll by the Kantar organization this week had PiS with 38 percent support, followed by Civic Platform (Klich’s party) with 19 percent. Another recent poll showed 52.6 percent of Poles oppose the government of Prime Minister Beata Szydło, with 38 percent in favor. [...]
Brussels has sounded alarmed by what’s happening in Warsaw. The European Commission may launch an infringement procedure against Poland next week for breaking EU law, and could trigger Article 7 proceedings — a move that could end with Poland losing its voting rights as an EU member.
Such an outcome is unlikely because Poland’s ideological ally, Hungary, has promised to block any such action. “We stand by Poland and we call on the European Commission not to overstep its authority,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in a statement Thursday. [...]
The government has brushed off both protesters and Brussels, arguing its reforms are needed to cleanse a dysfunctional justice system. “We won’t give in to pressure,” Szydło told parliament after it adopted the Supreme Court legislation. “We won’t be scared off by Polish and foreign defenders of elite interests.”
Politico: Le Pen’s soul-searching: 5 key issues for her party
Some point the finger at Le Pen herself. A Le Monde magazine article last week showed how the National Front chief dismayed her inner circle during a live TV debate by being far too aggressive and getting her facts mixed up, causing senior aide Sébastien Chênu to shed tears of frustration in the control room of TF1 television. [...]
Still other critics put the blame on party vice president Florian Philippot and his brother, Damien, a former Ifop pollster. The Philippots were dead-set on keeping withdrawal from the European Union as one of the party’s main campaign pledges. Convinced that Le Pen could win if she rallied the same majority of voters who opposed a European Union treaty change in 2005, they argued against dropping the proposal despite polls showing it was deeply unpopular even with National Front supporters. [...]
Philippot is sticking to his anti-euro stance, for an obvious reason: admitting that pushing for withdrawal from the EU was a disastrous mistake that cost Le Pen the election would amount to an admission of personal failure and set the stage for his own ouster, as well as that of his brother. “It’s obvious that as soon as the National Front announces it is giving up on the fight for reconquering monetary sovereignty, a number of problems come up,” Philippot wrote. “How can we imagine economic patriotism without a national currency?” Other senior executives are sure to fight hard against Philippot and argue for abandoning the anti-euro argument outright. “The French did not follow us” on this question, said election strategist and executive board member Nicolas Bay in June. Le Pen herself seems to be leaning away from the anti-euro position. She barely raised it in the final weeks of her campaign — and trying to explain how France would have two parallel currency systems after an EU exit was a traumatic low point of her debate performance.
Haaretz: Jerusalem Court Rules: Palestinian Authority Forces Tortured Dozens Suspected of Cooperating With Israel
The Palestinian Authority regularly tortured and abused both Israelis and Palestinians suspected of cooperating with Israel, states a precedent-setting Israeli ruling released on Wednesday. The ruling documented dozens of cases involving extreme measures used against those accused of collaborating with Israeli security forces.
The court ordered the Palestinian Authority to compensate the victims. The amount of compensation has not yet been set by the court, which only ruled that the PA has the obligation to compensate the plaintiffs who were illegally imprisoned, tortured and in some cases, kidnapped first. [...]
A clear pattern of the PA security forces' actions over the years emerges from the ruling. In a few cases, the victims were summoned for a “five-minute” talk, arrested and held for months without a trial or access to legal representation. The torture methods they describe are usually similar, and include severe beatings, sleep deprivation, pulling and breaking the detainees' teeth, preventing them from bathing or using the bathroom and constant threats of death.
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