Winter 2007, No. 3

This issue’s contributors explore topics ranging from the mind of the average American to that of the suicide bomber and from the perils of overarching constitutional theories to the sins of zealous historians. Peter Bergen, who conducted the first television interview with Osama bin Laden, and his New America Foundation colleague Michael Lind expose the myth of deprivation—that poverty and poor economic prospects fuel Islamist jihadism. Joshua Kurlantzick, a longtime Asia-watcher, argues that similar confusion clouds our thinking in East Asia, where an emergent China is both menacingly strong and perilously weak. In response, the United States might need to rely on the other rising Asian power, India, to keep China from falling too far in either direction.

We also have a series of articles exploring international institutions and relationships. Jeff Faux, founding president of the Economic Policy Institute, contends that an elite “Party of Davos” dominates world financial institutions and the debate over globalization. To bring stakeholders other than global corporate investors into the decision-making process, he argues that progressives should support a new strategy that speeds globalization instead of slowing it by pushing for regional economic blocs that link workers and everyday people, a strategy that should be grounded in a fairer, but, in fact, more far-reaching, NAFTA. Nancy Soderberg, a former U.S. Ambassador to the UN and National Security Council official, looks at the legacy of outgoing Secretary-General Kofi Annan to show that the UN is more indispensable to U.S. interests than ever before. And Soderberg’s former colleague from the U.S. mission to the UN, Suzanne Nossel, argues that, after six years of the Bush Administration’s foreign policy, a concerted effort to resuscitate American legitimacy is vital.

Examining issues closer to home, Duke University’s Aaron Chatterji and the University of California, Berkeley’s Siona Listokin make the progressive case against corporate social responsibility, while Jerold Kayden—director of the Master in Urban Planning Program at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design—responds to Joel Kotkin’s take-down of “cool cities” from our second issue. Looking critically at the history of the American left, Open Society Institute Vice President Gara LaMarche explains what the history of the American Civil Liberties Union can teach liberal organizations today; law professor Erwin Chemerinsky looks at Kermit Roosevelt III’s case against judicial activism; historian Kevin Mattson tells us how and why his profession is AWOL from American public life; and the University of New Hampshire’s Ellen Fitzpatrick writes an incisive essay about how public polling and its quest for the “average” American has affected American democracy.

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Features

A Matter of Pride

Why we can't buy off the next Osama bin Laden.

By Peter Bergen and Michael Lind

17 MIN READ

Corporate Social Irresponsibility

Progressives need to end their fixation with corporate social responsibility and focus on reform that actually works.

By Aaron “Ronnie” Chatterji Siona Listokin

23 MIN READ

Crashing the Party of Davos

Globalization works for the bosses. Can we make it work for workers too?

By Jeff Faux

23 MIN READ

Fragile China

China is both dangerously strong and weak and the right response may just take a closer relationship with India.

By Joshua Kurlantzick

27 MIN READ

Going Legit

International legitimacy isn't a restraint on American power, but a precondition for its effective use.

By Suzanne Nossel

20 MIN READ

Beyond Borders

American foreign policy must look beyond the nation state and toward human security.

By Gayle Smith

20 MIN READ

Book Reviews

Judicial Restraint

How Kermit Roosevelt III's judicial theory undermines the very case for judicial philosophies.

By Erwin Chemerinsky

13 MIN READ

The Meaning of the Mean

How probing for public opinion has dampened the public's voice.

By Ellen Fitzpatrick

1 MIN READ

Uncivil Liberties

What the turbulent history of the ACLU can teach progressive organizations today.

By Gara LaMarche

15 MIN READ

History Lesson

Those who don't know history are doomed to distort it and our political discourse.

By Kevin Mattson

18 MIN READ

Parliament of Annan

To start getting American foreign policy back on track, look no further than Turtle Bay.

By Nancy Soderberg

13 MIN READ

Responses

It's Not Schools vs. Scones

Reviving America's cities takes "back to basics," a bit of the cool, and more. A response to Joel Kotkin's urban prescription.

By Jerold Kayden

9 MIN READ

Recounting

Bipolar

American foreign policy will never be wholly realist or idealist and that's a good thing.

By Clay Risen

9 MIN READ

Editor's Note

Editors' Note

By the time this issue of Democracy is in your hands (or on your screens), a new Congress will have been elected. Regardless of the outcome, by now pundits will have dissected the results in every conceivable way: Who are...

By Kenneth Baer and Andrei Cherny

3 MIN READ

Letters

Letters to the Editors

Letters from our readers

By Democracy Readers

5 MIN READ

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