Winter 2013
Is Democracy Worth It?
In the sobering aftermath of the Arab Spring, old questions about the pursuit of political freedom in the developing world have come into fresh focus. Are the risks too great? Is the time too soon?
Essays
One after another, arguments that non-Western countries are not “ready” for democracy have been upended by experience.
Recent history in the countries of the former Soviet Union suggests that the appetite for freedom may not be as strong everywhere as we assume.
Three Afghan women write about violence and shelter, the Taliban, and getting to vote.
In a process almost unnoticed by the rest of the world, Africa has become significantly more democratic since the early 1990s. Its transition toward political freedom offers both inspiration and cautionary lessons.
If Washington seems to get much less done than it once did, it is partly because it is trying to do so much more.
In Essence
THE SOURCE: “Autism and the Technical Mind” by Simon Baron-Cohen, in Scientific American, Nov. 2012.
THE SOURCE:“What Is a Rare Book?” by Fred C. Robinson, in The Sewanee Review, Fall 2012.
THE SOURCE: “The Long-Term Impact of Physical and Emotional Trauma: The Station Nightclub Fire” by Jeffrey C. Schneider, Nhi-Ha T. Trinh, Elizabeth Selleck, Felipe Fregni, Sara S. Salles, Colleen M. Ryan, and Joel Stein, in Plos One, Oct. 2012.
THE SOURCES: “The Problem With the Pivot” by Robert S. Ross, in Foreign Affairs, Nov.–Dec. 2012; “The Turn Away From Europe” by Josef Joffe, in Commentary, Nov. 2012; and “Asia’s New Age of Instability” by Michael Wesley, in The National Interest, Nov.–Dec. 2012.
THE SOURCE: “Some Consequences of Having Too Little” by Anuj K. Shah, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Eldar Shafir, in Science, Nov. 2, 2012.
THE SOURCE: “Unnecessary Roughness: The Moral Hazards of Football” by Benjamin J. Dueholm, in The Christian Century, Sept. 19, 2012.
THE SOURCE: “Lincoln’s Constitutional Leadership” by Steven B. Smith, in National Affairs, Fall 2012.
THE SOURCE: “What Tragedy? Whose Commons?” by Fred Pearce, in Conservation, Fall 2012.
THE SOURCE: “Where Do India’s Billionaires Get Their Wealth?” by Aditi Gandhi and Michael Walton, in Economic and Political Weekly, Oct. 6, 2012.
THE SOURCE: “The Few, the Proud, the Infantilized” by Bruce Fleming, in The Chronicle Review, Oct. 8, 2012.
THE SOURCE: “Copycat China” by Yu Hua, in Prospect, Sept. 2012.
THE SOURCE: “Storied TV: Cable Is the New Novel” by Thomas Doherty, in The Chronicle Review, Sept. 21, 2012.
THE SOURCE: “The Management Century” by Walter Kiechel III, in Harvard Business Review, Nov. 2012.
THE SOURCE: “The Politics of Consumer Debt: U.S. State Policy and the Rise of Investment in Consumer Credit, 1920–2008” by Louis Hyman, in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Nov. 2012.
THE SOURCE: “Longer-Term Impacts of Mentoring, Educational Services, and Learning Incentives: Evidence From a Randomized Trial in the United States” by Núria Rodríguez-Planas, in American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Oct. 2012.
THE SOURCE: “Military History on the Electronic Frontier: Wikipedia Fights the War of 1812” by Richard Jensen, in The Journal of Military History, Oct. 2012.
THE SOURCE: “Enlightenment in Global History: A Historiographical Critique” by Sebastian Conrad, in The American Historical Review, Oct. 2012.
THE SOURCE: “Climate Science as Culture War” by Andrew J. Hoffman, in Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2012.
THE SOURCE: “Bureaucracy Does Its Thing, Again” by Frances Z. Brown, in The American Interest, Nov.–Dec. 2012.
Book Reviews
TWO CHEERS FOR ANARCHISM:
Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Dignity, and Meaningful Work and Play.
By James C. Scott. Princeton Univ. Press. 169 pp. $24.95
INVISIBLE ARMIES:
An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare From Ancient Times to the Present.
By Max Boot. Liveright. 750 pp. $35
TRIUMPHS OF EXPERIENCE:
The Men of the Harvard Grant Study.
By George E. Vaillant. Harvard Univ. Press. 457 pp. $27.95
FAR FROM THE TREE:
Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity.
By Andrew Solomon. Scribner. 962 pp. $37.50
