Accidental Censorship: How Policy, Markets and Technology Inadvertently Silence Political Speech

Our first post in an ongoing series exploring the transformation of journalism and what that means for democracy. Journalist and media critic Anne Elizabeth Moore describes the forces that are inadvertently silencing political speech in the United States. Sometimes, accidental policy can do a lot of damage. In the spring of 2006, Time-Warner, the largest…

The Discreet Charm of Flexians: Reviewing Janine Wedel’s Shadow Elite

Contrary to what its name may imply, “flexians” — the subject of the anthropologist and public policy scholar Janine Wedel’s stimulating new book Shadow Elite— are not alien beings from an episode of Star Trek. Rather, they are a relatively new, distinctly terrestrial constellation of actors who are remolding the landscape of global governance. Emblematic…

Freedom in the World 2010

Whether the global snapshot provided in Freedom House’s annual Freedom in the World assessment characterizes the 2010 results as a “declining trend” or a “stagnation” in global democracy, the report’s outlook is certainly bleak. Good news was hard to find in Freedom of the World 2010. Arch Puddington, Freedom House’s director of research, spoke Tuesday…