Dossiers
Today, the compromises that once allowed democracy to coexist with a well-regulated capitalism no longer seem to work. On the contrary, politics is becoming increasingly incapable of offering effective responses to the dissatisfaction and marginalization felt by large segments of the population — the old middle class, precarious and underpaid workers — while capitalist developments, beginning with the new digital economy, are deepening inequality, concentrating wealth and power to a remarkable degree, and showing signs of a retreat from territorial roots. This process of patrimonialization and neo-feudalization combines with autocratic tendencies in political power. The phenomenon is particularly evident in the United States, but it is far from unknown elsewhere, in countries both small (such as Hungary) and large (such as Russia). How should we rethink the relationship between capitalism and democracy? Can liberal democracy survive in an age of stagnation and widening inequality? What held the welfare state and the free market together in the postwar years—was it a unique historical interlude or a model that can be replicated? Has globalization now made the mechanisms of financial capitalism incompatible with national democratic processes? Are liberal elites to blame for failing to manage the economic transformations—globalization, offshoring, automation—that have fueled populism and authoritarianism? And is it still possible to correct course within the existing system, or does the moment demand a radical reconfiguration—and if so, how?
  • A week after the “re-inauguration” of Hagia Sophia as a mosque, diplomacies are still struggling to understand the full implications of the shocking and yet largely expected choice by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. But beyond the radars of the international attention, the move and its internal welcoming confirm the uncontented grip he continues to have on Turkey, driving it towards an increasingly nationalist, anti-modern path. In this Dossier, we explore the rationale behind those choices, the implications for regional affairs, as well as those on religious pluralism worldwide. For policy-makers on both sides of the Atlantic, there is much to care about, and some dire practical recommendations to take into account.
  • Today’s world and tomorrow’s America don’t look the same as they did one month ago. If that is the case, socially and politically, it is not just because of the “revolutionary” power of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has demonstrated its ability to disrupt well-established political leaderships, but also because of a different, human-moved force of change: the global anti-racist revolt which has followed George Floyd’s murder. How will it impact on the US, four months short of a crucial election, and the world? A kaleidoscope of stories, voices and perspectives in this special ResetDoc Dossier.
  • Is it truly impossible to reconcile the universality of rights and the specificity of belonging? A trans-national debate stemming from Seligman and Montgomery’s paper “The Tragedy of Human Rights”
  • Some historical events do not stop releasing their powerful lessons even years or decades later. That is beyond doubt the case with the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the rest of the chain of events which marked the collapse of the Soviet system over 1989. Its significance for Europe, and for ourselves, still merits being investigated thirty years later. That is what this Dossier tries to do, with the accounts and reflections by Riccardo Cristiano, Simone Disegni, Marta Facchini, Siegmund Ginzberg, and Lorenzo Monfregola.
  • Giuliano Amato; Sheri Berman; Mohsen Kadivar, Yael Tamir, Michel Wieviorka. A panel of highly distinguished speakers closed up the last edition of the Venice Seminars organized by ResetDoc and dedicated to the highly pressing challenge of the “dehydration” of the tradional sources of democracy. In order to give the discussions held maximum circulation, the present dossier features the proceedings of the high-level roundtable chaired by Ambassador Pasquale Ferrara, making up a remarkable chorus of voices on the way forward for a true “re-birth” of democracy.
  • In the country once famous for its multiculturalism and its civil rights, today the wind seems to have changed. A new extreme right has appeared and risks changing the political landscape at the next European elections. Thierry Baudet, the leader of the Forum for Democracy, is educated, dandy, histrionic, quotes philosophers and speaks to young people and citizens. In the Dutch populist competition, it seems that Geert Wilders’ star has found a worthy competitor.
  • An “illiberal trend” is haunting Europe. And the United States. It is a virus that is eating away at our democracies, which seem ever less to resemble “Liberal Democracy.” Freedom of the press and freedom of religion are being squeezed across Europe; independent institutions are contested by political parties that enjoy significant public support. The fundamental respect for human rights is no longer the guiding principle of the democracies that emerged from the Second World War.
  • From Zuccotti Park in NYC to Tahrir Square in Cairo, occupy movements and other forms of urban protests have been powerful resistance movements against increasing inequality and marginalization as consequences of global neoliberal processes. These resistance movements also challenged the institutions of representative democracy, which have been irresponsive to the demands of the masses.
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