“All I have is a voice. To undo the folded lie.” – W.H. Auden Auden wrote that line as part of an extended poem in 1939 during a period of rising upheaval with the onset of World War II.  In the midst of another period of political upheaval in the […]

Friday, 20 January 2017, marked the beginning of a new era in American politics and global history. Thousands gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the inauguration of Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States, and participate in the festivities of the day. Inauguration Day is […]

The publication of my classmate Lukas’ blog post about the role of social-democratic parties in the fight against populist parties and movements caused a lot of discussion among the MPP class, and I felt I wanted to write a response. Although I agree that social-democracy could be an answer to […]

“If we are not serious about facts – what’s true and what’s not – and particularly in an age of social media where so many people are getting information in sound bytes and snippets off their phones… If we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems.” […]

In a number of yearly polls, Gallup has reported that since 2010, between 73 and 79 percent of Americans agree that “corruption is widespread throughout the government in this country.” These staggering figures are by no means unique but there is considerable variation between countries, from 99 percent in Greece, […]

Democratic governments in the West are increasingly losing their bearings. From the shift toward illiberalism in Poland and Hungary to the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom and Donald Trump’s victory in the United States’ presidential election, a particularly lethal strain of populism is infecting societies – and it is […]