Failure Is an Option

Haunted by the specter of democracy, the Constitution’s framers blundered into a historic miscalculation. We’re still living with the consequences.

The Victory to Come

Bernie critics seem to think they dodged a bullet. They haven’t — the bullet is still on its way.

If Neoliberalism Were to End, How Would We Know?

What will decide the fate of neoliberalism today is not the extent of the economic damage the virus wreaks — it is the extent to which the virus transforms popular expectations.

Economists Told Us “Flexible” Labor Markets Were a Good Thing. Now They’re Plunging the US Into an Economic Catastrophe

For decades, America’s “flexible” labor markets have been celebrated by economists and favorably compared to Europe’s “sclerotic” labor institutions — the products of a century of militant worker struggle. Now, thanks to that very flexibility, the US stands on the brink of an economic disaster.

A Study Last Week Claimed to Prove That Bernie Is Unelectable. It Turns Out the Study Is Bunk.

A big new study came out last week arguing that Bernie Sanders’s electability could be a “mirage.” There’s just one problem: the report is nonsense.

The Cosmic Irony of Bernie Sanders’s Rise

What makes Bernie Sanders so threatening to the Democratic establishment is that he stands for what millions of Democrats thought their party stood for all along.

You Absolutely Don’t “Gotta Hand It to Them”

Last night’s UK elections results point to a deep problem in world politics today: the gravitational pull of privileging cultural over economic combat — an outcome that consistently divides the Left and hands victory to the Right.

Fear of a Populist Planet

“Populism” is today employed as a bogeyman by liberals and centrists alike. Is there anything worth salvaging in the concept?

Looking at Impeachment From the Left

How should the Left view the impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump? Are they a political opportunity or a distraction from the issues that leftists care about? A Jacobin roundtable.

Why Bernie Sanders Matters

The rationale for Bernie Sanders’s brand of politics has always been that it’s better to aim at shifting the basic parameters of American politics — however difficult that may be — than accepting those parameters and trying to maneuver within them.

What Bernie Sees in the New Deal

Bernie Sanders’s embrace of the New Deal legacy is an opportunity to dispel some pernicious historical myths about the New Deal’s relationship with socialism and its attitude toward the struggle for racial equality.

How Michel Foucault Got Neoliberalism So Wrong

In the emerging neoliberalism of the 1970s, Michel Foucault saw the promise of a new social order, more open to individual autonomy and experimental ways of living. That’s not how things turned out.

A Clash of Loyalties in the Parisian Suburbs

Beyond clichés about a “clash of civilizations,” a new book by French sociologist Fabien Truong illuminates the role of Islam in the lives of France’s poor and marginalized.

Why Bernie Talks About the New Deal

The pundits are puzzled that Bernie Sanders sees socialist values in the New Deal. They shouldn’t be. That’s how socialists around the world — and their enemies — saw it at the time.

Ilhan Omar Is Not Antisemitic

The rush to condemn Ilhan Omar says more about the vacuousness of our political discourse than the supposed bigotry of her comments.

Don’t Call It a Comeback

As 2020 approaches, we indulge in some crass Sunday morning horse-race punditry.

All That Was Solid

Economic historian Adam Tooze on a decade of shattered illusions and the limits of the neoliberal imagination.

Taking Off the Straitjacket and Running the Asylum

Let’s Take Elizabeth Warren Literally, But Not Seriously

Elizabeth Warren’s so-called Accountable Capitalism Act is a ruse. But it creates an unexpected opening for the Left.

Democrats and Their Promises

Of course Democratic candidates will claim to support progressive policies. Don’t assume they’re telling the truth.