Remembering Democracy
What is happening to liberal democracy: populism, neoliberalism, the rule of law and democratic institutions. 58 columns, all translated from Slovenian.
- The Lehman Brothers and Democracy
My boss and friend, Lord Russell-Johnston, a Scottish Liberal Democrat, humanist, and bon vivant, often said that the two biggest lies in the English language are: “Of course I’ll still love you in the…
- You Are Not Charlie
Before Robert Bowers stormed into the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh with an automatic rifle and murdered eleven people, he posted his intentions on the social media platform Gab, which is popular among…
- Shall We Go Our Own Way?
Few words carry as much autoerotic charge as sovereignty. We love to hear it, and we love even more to say it. It gives us a pleasant jolt in the gut—like speeding over a speed bump. It gives us confidence and…
- The Learning Years of Inventor Macron
The Yellow Vest protests are a nightmare for lovers of simple, black-and-white truths.
- All the (R)evolutions of Postman Drouet
On the first day of summer in 1791, the postmaster of Sainte-Menehould in northeastern France was gazing idly out the window at the dusty road leading toward Verdun, when a lavish carriage and a smaller wagon…
- That Damn Liberal Democracy
These days, mentioning liberal democracy feels like letting out a fart during a philharmonic concert—met with disgust and scorn from all sides. From the right, I get called a far-left radical; from the left, a…
- Neoliberalism for Teletubbies
In the first year of the last century, a terrible tornado swept through the American state of Kansas and carried 12-year-old Dorothy Gale into the Land of Oz. Wanting to go home, she set off for the Emerald…
- In the Trenches of Western Civilization
Easter Monday, en route from Ljubljana to Strasbourg. On the radio, I hear that the death toll from Sunday’s bomb attacks in Sri Lanka has climbed to nearly 300. Most of the victims were locals, but there were…
- The Future in the Grip of Populism
The recent anti-migrant protest in Jelšane, organized by the mayor of the small Slovenian city of Ilirska Bistrica, couldn’t have come at a more telling moment. Just weeks before the European elections, we…
- Climate Trickery
One of the tasks that takes up a considerable amount of my time in public office is trying to convince politicians and bureaucrats about the importance of knowledge and education for the proper functioning of…
- Gorillas in Disguise
In 1983, the hit movie Trading Places was released. In it, two wealthy brothers amuse themselves by manipulating the fates of two men, played by Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. Some may remember the film as a…
- The Differently-Minded
A few days ago, I posted on social media warning how uncritically we in Slovenia have adopted and started using the term “differently-minded.” On social networks and even in some media, the phrase has become a…
- Time to Change the World
From the center of Oslo to Lake Tyrifjorden, it’s just over half an hour by car. By the lake, there’s a gravel parking lot and a small dock. If you don’t know it’s there, it’s easy to miss. A few hundred…
- The Highway
The call that my father had died came on a sunny January Sunday morning almost thirteen years ago. I got in the car and drove to Slovenia. From Strasbourg to Ljubljana is just under 800 kilometers—usually…
- Bon Appétit
Two elderly ladies sit in the restaurant of a mountain resort, scowling at their plates.
- The Decade of Chicken Guts
Lenin once said there are decades when nothing happens, and days when decades happen. The one that’s about to stumble to its end in a few days fell somewhere in between. A decade full of fateful turning points…
- Blasphemia
When MP Primož Siter from the Slovenian Left party recently appeared at the National Assembly’s podium wearing a t-shirt of the American punk band Bad Religion—featuring a crossed-out Christian cross—a segment…
- Nutella Democracies
There’s no single answer to the question of why so many people, after enduring decades of authoritarianism and ideological conformity, so quickly became disillusioned with the democracy they once longed for.…
- The Battle of Sutjeska
Last Sunday, despite strict preventive measures against the pandemic, local elections were held in France. I won’t debate whether it was appropriate to organize elections in such a situation, but I decided to…
- Common Sense and Fat Potatoes
There are people who see opportunity in every crisis. No, I’m not talking about middlemen dealing in protective equipment—I don’t make a habit of commenting on the daily circus of politics, no matter how…
- Lucid Interval
It’s been a quarter of a century since that morning when I sat, palms sweating, in front of a panel in the building of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. It was the final test that might—or…
- Balls-shaped Politics
Summer holidays offer a chance for deeper and more analytical reflections on the world around us. For the past few days, I’ve been turning over in my head the question of why so many politicians seem obsessed…
- Whataboutism
When U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Slovenia less than three weeks ago, a stir erupted in parts of the public over reports that a workers’ paradise themed fresco by painter Slavko Pengov from 1947…
- Death in front of the School
On the afternoon of Friday, September 16, a 47-year-old teacher, Samuel Paty, was gruesomely murdered near the secondary school in a Paris suburb where he taught history and geography. He was beheaded with a…
- The Doctrine of Stolen Elections
The claim that the people can never be in opposition is the most concise and precise definition of illiberal populism I know. The key word, of course, is people—in Latin, populus—from which this political…
- Reduction to Absurdity
It’s been over three-quarters of a century since a senior government official responsible for national security in Europe publicly spread racist messages. That fact alone should give us pause.
- Chicken Sushi
When Georges Marchais, the long-time general secretary of the French Communist Party, was invited to speak on French radio three days after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he declared that the Eastern European…
- Salting the Mind
Educated people who often read Wikipedia know that the Great Charter of Liberties, or Magna Carta Libertatum, was created in England in 1215 to limit the power of the reigning monarch, King John (Lackland). It…
- Jupiters and Oxen
Let me state at the outset that I sincerely support efforts to bring more decency into Slovenian public life, especially politics. Our public discourse has become so coarse, petty, offensive, inappropriate,…
- How to Recognize Populism
Populism is a term frequently used in politics, most often to describe people, opinions, or actions we disagree with. This reckless name-calling of anything and everything stems from the fact that everyone…
- Gey-Free
On October 5 this year, in the Alsatian town of Klingersheim near the Swiss border, Amira walked into her 14-year-old daughter Dinah’s room and found her dead. According to her mother, Dinah committed suicide…
- The People and Power
Besides sovereignty, “the people” is perhaps the most inspiring—and also one of the most abused—concepts in political history and present-day politics. In Slovenia, it appears in the second paragraph of…
- Cats in a Bag
Looking back on three decades of Slovenia's experience with democracy, we must admit that much is not as we had hoped or wished. Citizens dislike politics and politicians, they don’t trust institutions, and…
- Social State, Constitution, and Democracy
In the United States, differences between political ideologies are typically measured by levels of fiscal and social conservatism or liberalism. With some terminological adjustments—since many on the European…
- Orphaned values
In December 2010, 26-year-old street vendor Tarek al-Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest against local government corruption in the Tunisian city of Ben Arous. His death sparked the Arab…
- Family Values from Tehran to Tallahassee
On Monday, September 19, just before the opening of this year’s United Nations General Assembly, a high-level summit titled Transforming Education was held at the UN headquarters. The goal was to reaffirm…
- Futures That Have Already Been
These are hard times for us (and not just for us, to be clear)—the old farts who still believe in the values of liberal democracy and preach about them. Sometimes I feel like those American homeless people who…
- How to Recognize Antisemitism
Recently, the Simon Wiesenthal European Center sent an open letter to the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar, expressing concern over "expressions of antisemitism, xenophobia, incitement…
- A Shortcut to Servitude
When The Road to Serfdom by Austrian-British economist Friedrich von Hayek was published by Routledge in March 1944, the initial print run was a modest 2,000 copies. Respectable, but nothing exceptional. Hayek…
- Yes, Democracy Is Under Threat
A few weeks ago, I received an invitation that surprised me. The RAND Corporation, a well-known American nonpartisan and nonprofit research organization primarily recognized for its military research, invited…
- When Children Die
On June 8, France was shaken by news of a horrific attack in the town of Annecy, where a Syrian refugee, Abdelmasih H., stabbed six people with a knife—among them four children under the age of four. The…
- March Toward Zero
Years ago, a dentist in the small Kansas town of Iola treated a girl brought in by her parents with a severe toothache. After briefly checking the parents’ health insurance, the dentist drilled the painful…
- Stories of People Who Left
"Sir, do you perhaps speak English?" an older gentleman called out to me as he sat on a wooden bench in the village square.
- We’re Not Nearly Woke Enough
Recently, the Slovenian public was appalled to learn that one of the country’s formerly most influential and high-ranking judges, a former judge at the European Court of Human Rights, regularly posts…
- A Handbook for Political Culture, or How to Help Democracy Survive 2024
The latest public opinion polls show that optimism is returning among Slovenians. That’s a lovely and important development—if perhaps a bit unexpected. Truth be told, the threshold for optimism in this poll…
- Transfers
In recent days, we’ve learned that after a long flirtation between Real Madrid and Kylian Mbappé, France’s wonderkid will finally move to the Spanish capital at the end of the season. Although Mbappé already…
- Poor Folk
Last Tuesday morning, angry farmers near the town of Pamiers in southwestern France—like others across the country—set up barricades. The protests were sparked by announced cuts to diesel fuel subsidies,…
- Democracy on Ventilators
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” These words by John Adams, one of the authors of the American…
- Third Way
The infamous “Third Way” is surely one of the most popular yet slippery political strategies taken up by politicians and “politicians” of vastly different origins, stripes, and flavors. The quest for a new…
- The Shallow Waters of Empty Political Broadness
For decades, Slovenians complained that we all had to think the same. Now we’ve been complaining for years because we don’t all think the same. In our collective relationship with democracy, it often seems…
- Freedom Without Democracy
Columnists are often accused of acting like we know everything. That’s obviously not true. I, for one, openly admit I know everything—except economics. When it comes to that science, I prefer to turn to the…
- Elliot and Elon
Elliot Carver was born in Hong Kong, the illegitimate son of a German woman who died during childbirth and Lord Roverman, a press tycoon. Carver studied communication sciences in Hong Kong and began his career…
- Elon Liberates
Last Wednesday, just two days after the inauguration of the newest U.S. president, employees at the local TV station WDJT-TV in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, received a brief notice stating that weather forecaster Sam…
- From Slovenia to America, for a Better World
In November 2016, just days after Donald Trump’s first victory in the U.S. presidential election, I received a request through an acquaintance from a Wall Street Journal journalist, asking whether I’d be…
- Pax Trumpiana
Imagine a gang of robbers entering a bank, emptying the vault, and to start things off, shooting a few employees and customers while taking the rest hostage. The police chief arrives on the scene and, speaking…
- Krasnov’s New World
Recently, social media erupted with the claim that U.S. President Donald Trump had been recruited into the KGB in 1987 and given the operative codename “Krasnov.” The source of this shocking revelation was…
- Make Greenland Green Again
There’s been a lot of talk about Greenland lately, so I can’t resist the temptation to say a few things myself. I have a special bond with Greenland. I’ve been there. On official business — more on that later.…
- Putin and I
If the reports are true that the Slovak Prime Minister had to circle around Europe on his way to the military parade in Moscow because the Poles and the Baltics didn’t let him pass through their airspace, he…