This book argues that principles are only a limited guide to dissent in unique, contingent circumstances. There are times when we need to accommodate the dreadfulness of loss for opponents, even when the cause for which they fight is unjust. We may also have to come to terms with the irreversibility of historic injustice and reconcile.

Updated for Obama's last year in office, the liberal syndicated radio and television host Bill Press reflects on how the Obama administration has failed and disillusioned the American left. The bestselling liberal syndicated radio and television host Bill Press turns a critical eye on Barack Obama and assesses why his performance as president on issues liberals care deeply about has failed the American left. Press argues efficiently that Obama may have drawn the wrong lessons from the enthusiastic crowds that swarmed around him on the campaign trail in 2008--instead of seeing the potential and desire for a stronger progressivism, Obama tried to rise above and unite the parties. The tragedy of the Obama presidency is that, by trying to be the first "post-partisan" president, he ended up being one of the weakest. On issues as far ranging as gun safety to health care to foreign policy, Obama has let voters down by simply not doing enough or taking the wrong actions. As Press describes it, liberals began the Obama presidency with high hopes, and they now near its end with deep disappointment and a sense of buyer's remorse.

This book examines China's process of democratic transition, and the role of state and society in this process.

This book explores the Indian tradition of liberalism through a critical intellectual biography of Valangaiman Sankaranarayana Srinivasa Sastri (1869–1946). A notable politician, diplomat and educationist in colonial India, Sastri was a founding member of the National Liberal Federation and was one of the leading liberals — often dismissed as ‘a body of sycophants and self-seekers’ — of the post-1918 period of Indian pre-independence history. Through Sastri, the book shines a light on the contributions of liberals in Indian political history and challenges the convenient binaries in Indian historiography. Examining the role that liberals like Sastri played in bridging the gap between the officials and the nationalists, it traces the practice of liberal politics in the post-1918 period of Indian nationalist struggle and the broader contours of Indian liberalism. Accessible, comprehensive and scholarly, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of Indian history, especially the nationalist movement, political thought, and South Asian studies.

This work shows the importance of analyzing the "low" politics of areas that have traditionally been dominated by "high" politics. The role of bodies such as the Liberal Summer School and the Women's Liberal Federation are examined, along with the work of thinkers such as JM Keynes and Ramsay Muir. The text should make two major contributions to our knowledge of the role of international relations in British politics in the inter-war years. First, by analysing the Liberal Party's principles and policies on international relations, it offers a perspective on British Liberalism. Second, by exploring the Liberal Party's alternative to the Baldwin-Chamberlain policy of appeasement, it enters the historical debate on the options open to Britain in the 1930s, and shows that there was a Liberal alternative to appeasement.

Stellar group of trans-disciplinary experts Addresses major questions for the future of social science research Topical coverage of issues such as artificial intelligence, political polarization and global financial systems

Throughout history, personal liberty, free markets, and peaceable, voluntary exchanges have been roundly denounced by tyrants and often greeted with suspicion by the general public. Unfortunately, Americans have increasingly accepted the tyrannical ideas of reduced private property rights and reduced rights to profits, and have become enamored with restrictions on personal liberty and control by government. In this latest collection of essays selected from his syndicated newspaper columns, Walter E. Williams takes on a range of controversial issues surrounding race, education, the environment, the Constitution, health care, foreign policy, and more. Skewering the self-righteous and self-important forces throughout society, he makes the case for what he calls the "the moral superiority of personal liberty and its main ingredient - limited government." With his usual straightforward insights and honesty, Williams reveals the loss of liberty in nearly every important aspect of our lives, the massive decline in our values, and the moral tragedy that has befallen Americans today: our belief that it is acceptable for the government to forcibly use one American to serve the purposes of another.

In Liberalism and Pluralism the author explores the challenges conflicting values, interests and identities pose to liberal democracy. Richard Bellamy illustrates his criticism and proposals by reference to such topical issues as the citizens charter, constitutional reform, the Rushdie affair and the development of the European Union.

This book discusses a broadly understood phenomenon of protest from several perspectives, including historical, cultural, social, political, environmental and semiotic. Through their analyses, the authors undertake to envision the possible evolution of the forms of contestation in the further decades of the 21st century, taking into account the specificity of the globalization processes. A multi-dimensional approach offered in this volume makes it possible to capture and identify new features of contemporary contestation and those that seem unchanged despite the passage of time and altering audiences. Examples from Europe (France, Great Britain, Italy, Ireland, Malta, Bulgaria, Poland, Belarus, Russia), America (USA, Mexico, Chile) and Far East (Hong Kong & China) are relevant case studies that show the faces of contestation, while reaching for new or modified rhetoric, symbolism, communication channels and the so-called modus operandi of protest initiators, active and passive participants, short- and long-distant observers. The book can be of value to a wide audience, particularly to the researchers studying contestation, social resistance, individual and collective disobedience, crisis management, and cultural/social dynamic of protests. It will also be of interested to experts and individuals from outside the academia like civil activists, practitioners and NGOs compelled by contemporary processes (tensions) occurring between the state, power, society and individuals.

Neoliberalism is easily one of the most powerful concepts to emerge within the social sciences in the last two decades, and the number of scholars who write about this dynamic and unfolding process of socio-spatial transformation is astonishing. Even more surprising though is that there has, until now, not been an attempt to provide a wide-ranging volume that engages with the multiple registers in which neoliberalism has evolved. The Handbook of Neoliberalism seeks to offer a wide-ranging overview of the phenomenon of neoliberalism by examining a number of ways that it has been theorized, promoted, critiqued, and put into practice in a variety of geographical locations and institutional frameworks. With contributions from over 50 leading authors working at institutions around the world, the volume's seven sections provide a systematic overview of neoliberalism's origins, political implications, social tensions, knowledge productions, spaces, natures and environments, and aftermaths in addressing ongoing and emerging debates. The volume aims to provide the first comprehensive overview of the field and to advance the established and emergent debates in a field that has grown exponentially over the past two decades, coinciding with the meteoric rise of neoliberalism as a hegemonic ideology, state form, policy and program, and governmentality. It includes a substantive introductory chapter and will serve as an invaluable resource for undergraduates, graduate students, and professional scholars alike.

It's not the economy, stupid: How liberal politicians' faith in the healing powers of economic growth-and refusal to address racial divisions-fueled reactionary politics across the South. From FDR to Clinton, charismatic Democratic leaders have promised a New South-a model of social equality and economic opportunity that is always just around the corner. So how did the region become the stronghold of conservative Republicans in thrall to Donald Trump? After a lifetime studying Southern politics, Anthony Badger has come to a provocative conclusion: white liberals failed because they put their faith in policy solutions as an engine for social change and were reluctant to confront directly the explosive racial politics dividing their constituents. After World War II, many Americans believed that if the edifice of racial segregation, white supremacy, and voter disfranchisement could be dismantled across the South, the forces of liberalism would prevail. Hopeful that economic modernization and education would bring about gradual racial change, Southern moderates were rattled when civil rights protest and federal intervention forced their hand. Most were fatalistic in the face of massive resistance. When the end of segregation became inevitable, it was largely driven by activists and mediated by Republican businessmen. Badger follows the senators who refused to sign the Southern Manifesto and rejected Nixon's Southern Strategy. He considers the dilemmas liberals faced across the South, arguing that their failure cannot be blamed simply on entrenched racism. Conservative triumph was not inevitable, he argues, before pointing to specific false steps and missed opportunities. Could the biracial coalition of low-income voters that liberal politicians keep counting on finally materialize? Badger sees hope but urges Democrats not to be too complacent.

First published in 1997. Examining race, law, and religion in today's America, The Least of These highlights the power of these principles to both divide and unite, and promotes a new form of liberalism that incorporates the spiritual values long neglected by earlier progressive liberals. Relaunching the fundamental tenet of progressive liberalism-that a justly ordered society must protect the interests and promote opportunities for the least advantaged of its population-Anthony Cook argues for a revival of the progressive vision of American politics. While the affirmative action debates smolder around the country, Cook contends that the spiritual foundation of this liberal tenet must be unearthed and elaborated to fit our times before we can attempt to tackle the issues that the civil rights era has left unanswered. As the twentieth century closes, The Least of These provides a greater understanding of the roots of our ongoing socio-political struggles, and serves as an invaluable profile of progressive liberal politics from World War II to the present.

Thomas Paine was an influential revolutionary pamphleteer, whose writings were instrumental in bringing about some significant political changes. His mastery of language was rivalled only by Swift and Cobbett. British-born, he emigrated to America in 1775 where his pamphlet "Common Sense" (1776) was directly responsible for the coming about of American independence. The "Rights of Man", published in 1791 became the founding text of the British working class movement. As part of his argument for man's natural rights Paine anticipated the Welfare State, arguing as early as 1797 for poor relief, old-age pensions and unemployment projects. Paine's importance lies not so much in the depth of his political philosophy as in his great abilities as communicator of political ideas. This text dicusses and considers the various implications of Paine's writings.

Drawing on Husserl's concepts of communalization and intersubjectivity, this book aspires to an orientation in which human beings are understood in the context of their full-blooded, concrete existence - the life-world. Michael F. Hickman offers a fresh return to the raw experience of politics through the contemporary realist idea of radical disagreement as the 'circumstances of politics.' He surpasses realist limitations through the acknowledgment of the constitution of world itself as an achievement of the intersubjective community, whilst crucially asserting that the political horizon is distinguishable from, but coterminous with, the life-world itself. Through the use of hypotheticals, an unprecedented phenomenological account of political experience is offered, in which three major themes of political subjectivity are explored: belonging and possession, authority, and foreignness and political others. Finally, a multi-phase analysis of legitimacy is conducted which, taking into account universal human rights and 'empirically' identifiable expressions of acceptance, is nonetheless rooted in a source - the life-world - that reaches beyond any mere collectivity of ego-acts. Utilizing an expanded philosophical universe, Husserlian Phenomenology and Contemporary Political Realism offers a path forward from the ideological stalemates in which liberal theory seems hopelessly locked. It will appeal to scholars involved in the study of Political Theory and Philosophy, International Relations, intercultural studies, human rights and phenomenology.

This book analyses the factors and processes behind radicalization of both native and self-identified Muslim youths. It argues that European youth respond differently to the challenges posed by contemporary flows of globalization such as deindustrialization, socio-economic, political, spatial and psychological forms of deprivation, humiliation, and structural exclusion. The book revisits social, economic, political, and psychological drivers of radicalization, and challenges contemporary uses of the term 'radicalism'. It argues that neoliberal forms of governance are often responsible for associating radicalism with extremism, terrorism, fundamentalism, and violence. It will appeal to students and scholars of migration, minority studies, nationalisms, European studies, sociology, political science, and psychology.

This book calls for new attention to non-traditional forms of emancipatory tactics and welcomes to the fold all manner of ‘everyday’ expressions of anti-authoritarianism. Capitalism has taken the mask off. Elites feel less obliged to pursue strategies of popular legitimization. The traditional institutions of representative democracies are thus hollowing out and stand before us corrupted and broken. In this milieu, the prospects for a democratic entering of the state are seen as increasingly fantastical, and the Left is advised instead to adopt a more tactical posture. These expressions can run the gamut, from the more obviously theatrical antics of ‘The Yes Men’ to those of ‘black bloc,’ and other direct-action militant groups, already well-known from their interventions in the cities of Berkeley and Charlottesville. This volume addresses this problem via the concept of tactics. The point is less to prescribe an ideal range of tactics but rather to consider a broader range of resistances—from the struggles of indigenous peoples to those who seek refuge from gender or citizenship-based discrimination to those who seek to defend “black lives” from militarized policing. Tactics and Emancipation in the Age of Authoritarian Neoliberalism will be a beneficial read for students and scholars of Critical Political Science, International Relations, and International Political Economy. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of New Political Science.

Using innovative interpretations of recent big budget films, Coronavirus Capitalism Goes to the Cinema interrogates the social, political and economic landscape during and prior to the COVID-19 crisis and provides lessons for advancing progressive politics in a post-pandemic age. By exploring numerous films including Avengers: Endgame, Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood, 1917, and Parasite, this short book provides a deep understanding about neoliberal society in a time of crisis. Facilitated by the ideas of Emma Goldman, Naomi Klein, Karl Marx, Noam Chomsky and many more, these movies are reinterpreted to point out our political blind spots, combat our non-COVID contagions and inoculate us into ideological herd immunity. From explorations of the supervillain-like decision-making of our political leaders to the inequalities in infection outcomes that sparked further Black Lives Matter protests, this book discusses the central social challenges we face today through the sights and sounds of some of the most beloved films of the very recent past. This entertaining and accessible book will reward readers who are interested in contemporary politics in the context of COVID-19, as well as cinephiles and movie-goers who want fresh interpretations of instant classics to help explain the world around them. More than just informative and amusing, this book is a call to action to those activists who want social change in the face of coronavirus capitalism.

The theory of spontaneous order conceptualises and explains a number of institutional and social phenomena that are not an intended effect of either individual decisions or a collective consensus but an unplanned outcome of interactions between people pursuing their own aims. Drawing on these insights, this book demonstrates the utility of the theory of spontaneous order in explaining many phenomena in political economy and political science. The book opens with a discussion of the history and development of the theory of spontaneous order, particularly in economics and the Austrian School. The epistemological premises of the theory are then explored including the formulation of the central idea of social individualism. Demonstrating the potential applications of the theory of spontaneous order to politics, core ideas are examined including democracy, fragile states and the concept of the veil of ignorance. Finally, the limitations and constraints of the theory of spontaneous order are also reviewed and discussed. This book marks a valuable contribution to the literature on political economy, political science, public choice and political philosophy.

This book critically examines the relationship between civility, citizenship and democracy. It engages with the oft-neglected idea of civility (as a Western concept) to explore the paradox of high democracy and low civility that plagues India. This concept helps analyse why democratic consolidation translates into limited justice and minimal equality, along with increased exclusion and performative violence against marginal groups in India. The volume brings together key themes such as minority citizens and the incivility of caste, civility and urbanity, the struggles for 'dignity' and equality pursued by subaltern groups along with feminism and queer politics, and the exclusionary politics of the Citizenship Amendment Act, to argue that civility provides crucial insights into the functioning and social life of a democracy. In doing so, the book illustrates how a successful democracy may also harbour illiberal values and normalised violence and civil societies may have uncivil tendencies. Enriched with case studies from various states in India, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of political science, political philosophy, South Asian studies, minority and exclusion studies, political sociology and social anthropology.

At the fiftieth anniversary of 'multiculturalism' as a concept, this is the first book to provide detailed analysis of the contemporary issues facing multiculturalism globally, incorporating the rise of right-wing populism, and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Traverses the past, present, and future of multiculturalism, assessing the positive impacts while also recognising limitations, and how these may impact the future of multiculturalism in the 21st Century. * Provides an in-depth study of critical perspectives on multiculturalism that stem from indigenous and decolonial thought, critical race theory, and black studies. Presents a near global comparative analysis, that moves the discussion beyond western liberal democracies, to the impact of multiculturalism in the Americas, Europe, Oceania, Africa, and Asia. Features a strong mixture of established names, including influential and renowned scholars such as Will Kymlicka, Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Alain G. Gagnon, and Avigail Eisenberg (to name a few), while also introducing new names and perspectives to the field.

E explores, using textual (words) and visual (image) data from the corporate newsletters of two prominent Asian universities, how particular discourses and their associated discursive representations of neoliberal logic and subjectivity occur in higher education. In particular, she looks at the expression of both institutional priorities and state imperatives that lend themselves to a complementarity built upon two contradictory perspectives: individualism and communitarianism. She argues that the ever-increasing demand for, and utility of higher education in neoliberal society means that it no longer functions merely to provide knowledge and skills, but has implications for society, the individual and the state with regard to their ways of thinking, doing and being. Contributing to a growing corpus of literature on how higher education around the world is being shaped by neoliberal policies, E's research is based on work done in the city-state of Singapore, a less-well represented context in current literature. While both higher education institutions possess significantly different institutional identities and backgrounds, the alignment of their varied representations of neoliberal logic and subjectivity with state-sanctioned imperatives that indirectly impose demands and constraints shows how neoliberalism as ideology adapts to the socio-political, socio-cultural and socio-economic dimensions that make up the Singapore context. The discursive representations of context-dependent neoliberal logics and subjectivity are discussed in terms of their ideological implications, focusing primarily on the complementarity between seemingly contradictory ideological positions. E's work uses an innovative framework that integrates aspects of Discourse Theory with Critical Discourse Analysis and demonstrates the use of this framework through empirical linguistic and image analysis. Appealing to academics and graduate students in linguistics, especially those with an interest in critical multimodal discourse analysis, audiences from the domains of higher education research, critical geography, sociology and political science will also find this a useful book.

The World Social Forum (WSF) was conceived as a platform for exchanging experiences and interlinking effective action. It has brought together people and social movements opposed to neoliberalism, imperialism and the domination of the world by capital. In this book, leading intellectual-activists from four continents take stock of the WSF-experience until the early 2020s and suggest new paths for collaboration between all who build other possible worlds. Since the first meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in January 2001, at least hundreds of thousands of activists have contributed to WSF activities locally, regionally, and globally. In the early years of the WSF, high hopes were often associated with the pink wave in Latin America, the Arab Spring, and similar events elsewhere. Many foresaw the coming of a systemic crisis and some activist-intellectuals even predicted with some accuracy the outbreak of the financial crisis. But not many predicted the strengthening of authoritarian capitalism that followed. The focus of this edited volume is on the multiple practices of struggle, organization, and conceptual innovation expressed in the main WSF slogan since 2001: "Another world is possible." Most chapters in this book were originally published in the journal Globalizations.

Rethinking Liberalism for the 21st Century offers an indispensable reexamination of the life, work, and interventions of a prominent liberal political theorist of the 20th century: Judith Shklar. Drawing on published and unpublished sources including Shklar's correspondence, lecture notes, and other manuscripts, Giunia Gatta presents a fresh theoretical interpretation of Shklar's liberalism as philosophically and politically radical. Beginning with a thorough reconstruction of Shklar's life and her interest in political theory, Gatta turns her attention to examining the tension between Shklar's critique of the term "modernity" and her passion for Enlightenment thinkers, including Rousseau and Hegel. In the second part of the book, Gatta roots Shklar's liberalism of permanent minorities in her work in the history of political thought, and highlights this contribution as a fundamental recasting of liberalism as the political philosophy of outsiders. She makes a compelling argument for a liberalism of permanent minorities that refuses to stand on the ground of firm foundations and, instead, is oriented by complex understandings of cruelty and fear. Rethinking Liberalism for the 21st Century is a much-needed reorientation of traditional liberal policies, allowing for a more meaningful intervention in many contemporary debates. As such, it will be of interest to scholars of political theory, the history of political thought and ideas, philosophy, international relations, and political science in general.

This book investigates the policies of the Thatcher, Major and Blair governments and their approaches towards concentration of economic and political power. The 1979-2007 British governments have variously been described as liberal or, to use a political insult and a favourite academic label, neoliberal. One of the stated objectives of the Thatcher, Major and Blair governments-albeit with differing focal points-was to disperse power and to empower the individual. This was also a consistent theme of the first generation of neoliberals, who saw monopolies, vested interests and concentration more generally as the 'great enemy of democracy'. Under Thatcher and Major, Conservatives sought to liberalize the economy and spread ownership through policies like Right to Buy and privatisation. New Labour dispersed political power with its devolution agenda, granted operational independence to the Bank of England and put in place a seemingly robust antitrust framework. All governments during the 1979-2007 period pursued choice in public services. Yet our modern discourse characterises Britain as beset by endemic power concentration, in markets and politics. What went wrong? How did so-called neoliberal governments, which invoked liberty and empowerment, fail to disperse power and allow concentration to continue, recur or arise? The book will be of interest to students and scholars of contemporary British history, political economy and politics, as well as specific areas of study such as Thatcherism and New Labour.

Examines Horatio Bottomley's life and politics, and what made him one of the great figures of Edwardian life. Shows how Bottomley began on the centre-left of Edwardian politics, then moved to the margins, becoming a leading figure on the Edwardian far right, and pre-empting the non-fascist far right of our own days.