Mexico’s 1994 presidential election was supposed to bring both clean elections and the political comeback of the left. Instead, Mexico escaped the worldwide wave of democratization one more time. The Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), which includes center-left ex-members …
Rose Laub Coser died August 21, 1994 at her summer home in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, ending seventy-eight years of intense and passionate commitment to her family, the institutions of which she was a part, sociological analysis, and the cause of social …
It’s a sour moment. The right has attained new power, but its intellectual, not to mention moral, bankruptcy has never been more evident. The GOP’s “Contract with America” regurgitates Reaganesque ideas that brought this country to many of its present …
If you have grown up as a baseball fan, you know that one of the cardinal rules of the game is that you root for your home team. It doesn’t matter if they are lousy and another team is better. …
Until recently, the question of the origins of fascist ideology seemed a fairly academic affair. Not only have the events of World War II receded in historical memory, but the collapse of communism made it appear that the “age of …
A diaphanous screen seems to separate “liberals” from opponents, who are often grouped together (by “liberals”) in clumps called “communitarians,” or here “culturalists.” One of the things that doesn’t seem to get through the screen is the sense attributed to …
Not long ago I was part of a “focus group.” The idea of these things is that a publisher assembles some academics and asks them to assess the need for new materials in a given subject . . . to …
James Wilson contends that there is a universally human moral sense that makes possible the existence of stable human ‘societies. He divides his moral sense into four parts: sympathy, fairness, self-control, and duty.Wilson thinks that many prevailing doctrines in and …
My friend Ferenc Fehér was a remarkably learned, eloquent, brilliant man. But he did not live a happy life, and suffered more than his share of injustice in three worlds. The Nazis murdered his father when he was still a …
The collapse of intellectual conservatism in America has been as complete as it has been swift. Consider a few contrasts. In 1984, the leading conservative spokesman in the media was George Will; by 1994, it was Rush Limbaugh. The basic …
Feminists won a major victory at the UN Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo last September, making the empowerment of women the central issue of population policy. Slowing population growth will henceforth have to be addressed within the …
When we call something a problem, we are implying that a solution can be found. We are sending a signal that if we just think hard enough, consult the right experts, establish the right priorities, and then act decisively, we …
With the economy growing and inflation steady, why are so many people disgruntled? One reason may be that economic growth has not improved their standard of living. For example, in 1993, despite the economic recovery, the number of Americans below …
On the first page of his introduction, Victor Erlich refers to Irving Howe’s “still resonant” essay “The Idea of the Modern.” It was Howe, many years ago, who suggested to Erlich that he was the right man to unravel the …
David Bromwich writes powerfully and at length about the sins of “culturalism,” and my response here can only be brief and incomplete. But these are issues that we will continue to argue about in Dissent; I will look for occasions …
