liberal democracy – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

Democratization vs. Liberalism in Canada

Many North Americans (leaving aside Mexico), would likely not know that the official acronym for “North Korea” is “DPRK,” and if they did then fewer still might realize what it stands for: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. An even smaller minority, we can assume, would take North Korea’ self-designation as “democratic” seriously. If anything, […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

The Real World of Democracy (and Anthropology)

Review essay, Part 2 (see Part 1) Referring to the process by which he studied Cuban democracy, August explicitly refers to it as “ethnographic research” (p. xiii). This is an important point, because he was trained as a political scientist in Montreal, but he is producing the kind of book that no anthropologist has offered, […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Landscapes of Emergency

Landscapes of Emergency is the title of a new short documentary film by Ross Domoney, produced by a Sussex Anthropology project on Public Order in Athens that has just been released. It provides a look at securitization, the imposition of a state of emergency on Greece in the wake of various efforts to control dissent and impose […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Torture for Democracy (1): Michael Ignatieff’s New Imperialism

It began as a “prank,” in the words of the Canadian Press this past 17 August 2009. An anonymous critic of Canadian Liberal leader sent a mass mailing, using a BBC address, to the parliamentary press gallery. In each envelope a was a colour copy of a damning piece about Michael Ignatieff, published four years […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Torture for Democracy (2): Video Post

To not clutter up the main post, Torture for Democracy (1), the relevant supporting videos are placed here.

by Maximilian C. Forte

Anthropologist Under Attack: University of East London Punishes Chris Knight Over His Public Speech

Chris Knight The latest assault against the freedom of academics as public citizens in alleged “liberal democracies” comes from the U.K., in the form of the University of East London‘s decision to suspend Dr. Chris Knight, an anthropologist and member of the Radical Anthropology Group, over observations he made on BBC Radio 4 concerning the […]