tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post935331052947332932..comments2024-03-29T02:27:32.635-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: A BRIEF RESPONSE TO ONE SMALL PORTION OF A COMMENTRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-2549089628874189272018-08-02T16:10:15.402-04:002018-08-02T16:10:15.402-04:00In relation to this discussion of electoral politi...In relation to this discussion of electoral politics I’d like to draw attention to Pierre Rosanvallon’s new book, “Good Government: Democracy Beyond Elections” (Harvard, 2018). “Our regimes,” he begins, “are democratic, but we are not governed democratically.” His argument, as best I understand it, is that throughout the western world there has been a significant shift in power from representative legislatures to executives. He goes on: “The traditional representative function of parties began to erode in the early part of the twentieth century, and by the end had all but disappeared. . . . For the moment. because parties have distanced themselves from the world of everyday experience, their rhetoric, filled with grand abstractions having no point of contact with people’s daily lives, echoes into a void.” Or again, “parties have now become subsidiary structures of executive organs, they are no longer in a position to play an effective role in giving the governing-governed relation a proper democratic form.”<br /><br />The book, part of a more extended inquiry into the character of politics in contemporary western societies, is too long to summarize and evaluate here. But, as I hope my quoted passages convey, what is being encountered is an exploration of the possibility that the social, cultural, and economic circumstances which underlay the political systems which are still presented as the norm have so altered that a different sort of politics has necessarily emerged—or at least is emerging.<br /><br />If Rosanvallon is right, there is reason to doubt the democratic efficacy of elections. Elections ain’t, perhaps, what they used to be, no matter how much we wish they were.<br /><br />RobinMcDugaldnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-89683463876983791272018-08-01T15:49:07.553-04:002018-08-01T15:49:07.553-04:00I think that works; everyone does what they can. ...I think that works; everyone does what they can. Everyone plays their part.<br /><br />BTW, I just read the endorsements (81) that Obama has made for 2018.<br /><br />https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/here-are-81-candidates-obama-endorsed-2018-midterm-elections<br /><br />Here's NC (no Congressional endorsements apparently):<br /><br />Wiley Nickel (State Senate, District 16)<br /><br />Ron Wesson (State House, District 1)<br /><br />Terence Everitt (State House, District 35)<br /><br />Julie Von Haefen (State House, District 36)<br /><br />Sydney Batch (State House, District 37)<br /><br />Rachel Hunt (State House, District 103)<br /><br />Jerry Fresiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17566575038825699112noreply@blogger.com