An Italian Democratship?

Nearly a century after the Lateran Pacts, the crisis in voter turnout and the new premiership law could turn Italy into a low-representation democracy. The Vatican, bound to Rome’s political destiny, is also concerned. The new electoral law that Parliament just passed raises delicate questions for the Holy See. In 1929, with the signing of […]

AfD, Representation or Distortions?

The extreme right’s win in Germany poses an existential problem: what is the truth, and what are the limits of representation’s power? Like a century ago, the answers matter to the world Catholic writer and analyst Chris Caldwell is, as usual, brilliant in writing about the crisis in Germany that led to the recent AfD […]

The crisis of liberal democracies

When observing the international political scene today, few things appear as clear as the deeply critical tensions facing Western democracies. The current situation in the United States, one of the oldest and most established democratic systems, serves as evidence of this and should leave us far from reassured about the future of democratic political systems […]

Time for no Change – or Not?

The history of the CPSU, the CPC, and the global situation don’t push Xi’s China toward democratic reforms. But domestic contradictions create fissures that could be hard to control otherwise. In 2012, the year Xi Jinping took power, it was the 63rd anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CPC) rule in China. It was a […]

China’s Communist Party Subconscious

The subconscious of countries and institutions shapes their choices. How to speak to the CPC on a deeper, more soulful level and get it to see the broader, global reasons behind the market? Do states or institutions have a subconscious, a character? Some psychiatrists, like Italian Narciso Mostarda,  (see here) believe they do. If so, […]

Ideal of a Deal

Trump and Xi talked about trade, but a Chinese malaise haunts America and stalls bilateral ties. To break the stalemate, Beijing should perhaps address the issue of democracy. It’s not ideal, and it’s not a deal, but at least after scores of tweets, statements, and public wailings, a call broke the months-long standoff. US President […]

Nicaea and Us. A Lesson from the Past for Our Impoverished Democracy

On May 20 (375), the Council of Nicaea began, which would than define the divinity of Jesus and the Trinitarian dimension of the Christian God. Heiner Wilmer, Catholic bishop of Hildesheim (Germany), shows how significant ideas for restoring strength and substance to our democracies in crisis are hidden in the structural folds of this Christological […]