Is It Time We Started Looking For a Dictator?

Contemplating the Future of Democracy in an Age When Authoritarians Are Kicking Our Rears

Why can’t the United States build a rapid transit system like China’s? Is a firmer hand needed to guide the European Union through the financial crisis? Does California’s direct democracy system need more limits? These were among the questions global political thinkers tackled in a conversation about whether democracy is too slow for the 21st century in a panel at Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum as part of the Zócalo/Cal Humanities “Searching for Democracy” series.

Harvard University East Asia scholar and Deng Xiaoping biographer Ezra Vogel believes that the U.S. can learn …

May 8, 2012

You’ll Miss Europe If We Kill It

The EU Benefits the World More Than People Appreciate

by Janice Thomson | May 6, 2012

Several years ago, after a lifetime in the heartland of America, I moved to the heart of the European Union. Having heard Brussels described as the Washington, D.C. of Europe, …

Our Braveheart Moment

Scotland’s Desire to Call it Quits and the Future of Social Cohesion in the West

by Gregory Rodriguez | February 29, 2012

Worried about the fate of the Western world? Then forget about Muslim fundamentalism, and put aside your fear of rampant globalization. But do keep an eye on Scotland.

That’s right, all …

The Greek Dilemma

Europeans Have To Be Given a Say in Their Future

by Joe Mathews | November 6, 2011

The idea of a Greek plebiscite to challenge the European debt bailout plan may be dead. But don’t exhale yet. The world will soon see more European referenda that could …

German Guilt Wears Thin

If It Becomes a Normal Country, Where Does That Leave Europe (And Me!)?

by Gregory Rodriguez | October 2, 2011

My German 3 summer school instructor at Berkeley once pulled me aside after class to accuse me of having a deep-seated hatred toward all things German. Irritated, I told her, …

You Don’t Scare Us, Terrorists

How Norway Kept Calm and Carried On

by Bruno Kaufmann | September 8, 2011

When I boarded the plane in Stockholm to fly to Oslo recently, no one asked me to show my ID. This stunned me–all the more so when I noticed the …

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