Category: Civil Society
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Joseph Stiglitz: Democracy, Justice, and Inequality
Why is inequality bad for democracy and justice? What can be done about it? In this post, we present the works of Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate, economist, and professor at Columbia University. Focusing on three of his key books, “The Price of Inequality,” “The Great Divide,” and “People, Power, and Profits,” we present Stiglitz’s…
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Power Inequality: Trends in Europe
Inequality is generally understood as long-standing structured differences in social, economic, legal, and political resources. Inequalities intersect, such that power inequality is associated with economic, legal, social, and political inequality. What is power inequality? Power inequality is defined as structured differences in the capacity of principals to realize their will against the interests and efforts…
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Social Movement Theory: Fields, Arenas, and Players
Social movement theory typically uses the concepts of fields, arenas, and players or actors. But these concepts seem to be conceptually similar. In this post, I critique two articles by prominent social movement theorists to understand fields, arenas, and players. At the end, I attempt a synthesis. See also: Social Movement Outcomes Social Movement Fields…
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When Local Governments Protested the USA Patriot Act
Mass Protests over Federal Government Policy The US Presidential of 2016 election sparked protests across the nation. There were mass demonstrations over immigration and refugee policies, pro-Trump rallies, town hall debates over health care, the Women’s March on Washington, and declarations of support for sanctuary cities, to name just a few. We have not seen such…
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Political Inequality and the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine
This is a guest post by Olga Zelinska, Polish Academy of Sciences, based on an early article (2015) on local Maidans. The Start of Euromaidan in Ukraine It was the summer of 2013 and the people of Ukraine felt helpless. During this time of ‘soft authoritarianism,’ they saw rampant corruption while corporations and other business…
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Neoliberalism and Democracy
Neoliberalism has degraded democracy through its ideological control over the economy, polity, and the cultural sphere.
Political Inequality: A blog since 2010 