The Idea(s) of Democracy
It’s happening! The first issue of a new journal, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, is out. It is free online at http://www.democracyjournal.org/
According to the founders, its mission is to build a vibrant and vital progressivism for the twenty-first century that builds on the movement’s proud history, is true to its central values, and is relevant to present times.
This is no ordinary political magazine. Rather, its editors seek breakthrough thinking on the concepts and approaches that respond to the central transformations of our time: the breakdown of the ladder of upward mobility; the promise and problems of an information-based, globalized economy; new national security threats which cross old boundaries and defy old assumptions from jihadist terrorism and nuclear proliferation to climate change, pandemics, and poverty; and a society where people work and live in new and different ways.
This is not the old politics, warmed over. Democracy is not interested in either reiterating the conventional wisdom or maintaining unity around outdated orthodoxies. We see our role as upsetting tired assumptions, moving past outdated and obsolete divisions, and stretching the envelope of what is accepted by and of progressives.
With a bold invitation, the first issue is launched. We have no doubt that ideas can change the course of our nation. Now is the time to fashion a new progressivism for the twenty-first century, and we welcome all who are willing to join in this conversation.
Be sure to read the Message to Our Readers from the first issue: http://www.democracyjournal.org/article.php?ID=6465
And don’t forget to follow the developments at UNITY08: http://www.unity08.com
Check it out!
posted by Merle F. Allshouse at 7:21 AM
1 Comments:
Merle: It has been nearly four decades since we were in touch but at Dickinson College in 1968-69, when you were Associate Dean and I was a member of the Academic Standards Committee, we found ourselves involved in a deep academic crisis--those were heady days--when one of our colleagus, practicing what he probably thought as academic democracy harnessed to education, decided to give every student in his large class an A in advance in order to free learning from grades. We had to work through all the implications of his experiment before coming to a decision about it, which virtually paralyzed the campus for a time. Democracy has many names and guises.
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