Books & ideas

A Return to Liberal Democracy

Laurent Warlouzet — 2026-01-22T07:00:00Z

Popular sovereignty and the rule of law are inseparable: the idea that there could be “illiberal democracies” is groundless and plays into the hands of populists.

Facing Bolsonaro's Attack on Science and Social Protection in the Pandemic

Émilie Frenkiel & Alfredo Ramos — 2020-07-09T07:00:00Z

Bolsonaro's policy focuses on the destruction of social protection, science and political pluralismo. A coalition of actors, comprising national and local leaders, has emerged to limit its disastrous results in the context of the current Covid-19 pandemic.

Are Capitalist Democracies Really Resilient?

Cyril Benoit — 2020-06-18T07:00:00Z

For Torben Iversen, capitalism is not responsible for the crisis democracies are currently facing. After Jenny Andersson, Cyril Benoît underlines the limits of this optimistic interpretation.

Are Capitalist Democracies Really Resilient?

Jenny Andersson — 2020-06-17T07:00:00Z

For Torben Iversen, capitalism is not responsible for the crisis democracies are currently facing. Responding to this argument, Jenny Andersson underlines the limits of this optimistic interpretation.

Reinventing Capitalism

Torben Iversen — 2020-06-15T07:00:00Z

Should we blame capitalism for the challenges rich democracies have been facing over the past thirty years—from growing inequality to the rise of populism? According to Torben Iversen, the opposite is true: it was democracy that transformed capitalism to take full advantage of new technologies.

Beyond Backlash

Priscila Delgado de Carvalho — 2020-05-21T07:00:00Z

Gender not only reached an unprecedented level of exposure in public debates but has become a structuring element of contemporary conservative discourses. This text discusses how gender can be incorporated into assessments of the current crisis of democracies

Can Covid-19 Crisis Change Italian Politics?

Alessandro Mulieri — 2020-04-27T07:21:24Z

Since Italy has been a laboratory of recent global political developments, it is important to keep a close eye on how anti-elite and souverainist tendencies fare in the Coronavirus crisis that has hit Italy hard and how party lines have been reshuffled in the current reconciliation with technocracy.

The Origins of the French État-providence

François-Xavier Merrien — 2020-01-13T08:00:00Z

For a long time, the origin of the term État-providence in French was ascribed to late Second Empire liberals who apparently coined it in a negative sense. In reality, though, the notion reaches further back to the generation of 1848, where it emerged as a response to working-class demands. Understood in this way, the expression regains its legitimacy.

Journalism and Media Politics in Asia

Émilie Frenkiel — 2019-09-23T08:02:06Z

As populism is rising on a global level, Books & Ideas offers a series on media politics in East Asian countries, to be published over the next two weeks. Though situations are extremely diverse, they can teach us a lot on the relationship between the state and journalists in authoritarian contexts. What role is left for the media to play in non-democracies?

The Enigma of Peronism

Humberto Cucchetti — 2018-03-05T08:00:00Z

Peronism, a political and social movement, has structured life in Argentina since the 1940s, and has been emulated elsewhere in Latin American. But it eludes any precise definition. Neither a dictatorship, nor a democracy, this plebiscitary regime is based on the army and trade unions.