At the height of the holiday season, we here at Democracy received a gift of our own—The Utne Independent Press Awards named us the best new publication of 2007! Competing against the several hundred magazines and journals launched last year, we consider this a real honor. “This quarterly ‘journal of ideas’ has consistently presented fresh perspectives on American foreign policy and politics,” the award panel wrote. “Democracy fills a void in today’s media landscape: It’s an intelligent, wide-ranging political magazine.”

Look at this most recent issue and you’ll see why we were picked. Our lead article is a lengthy symposium featuring 20 of the progressive world’s leading thinkers, each of whom presents a fresh idea for tackling some of the nation’s most pressing problems, from retiring Baby Boomers to water shortages. Alongside it are two exciting foreign-policy essays: The first, by Carnegie Endowment scholar Joshua Kurlantzick, on the pluses and minuses of sovereign wealth funds, and the second, by the Asia Society’s Jamie Metzl, on the unrecognized danger lurking at the intersection of genetic engineering and international relations. Alongside our features are several thoughtful book review/essays, including a hilarious, and hilariously smart, piece by Guardian America editor Michael Tomasky on the isolationist tendency in American conservatism.