Future Politics

The 20th century witnessed the triumph of democratic capitalism in the industrialized West, with widespread popular support for both free markets and representative elections. Today, that political consensus appears to be breaking down, disrupted by polarization and income inequality, widespread dissatisfaction with democratic institutions, and insurgent populism. Tracing the history of democratic capitalism over the past two centuries, Carles Boix explains how we got here - and where we could be headed.

Deutschlands bekannteste Zukunftsforscherin nimmt Ängste und schärft den Blick nach vorn. "Der Mensch ist das Wesen, das die Fähigkeit hat, sich die Zukunft so detailliert vorzustellen, dass es sie erschaffen kann", schreibt Florence Gaub, und das ist in diesen Monaten eine Nachricht voll Hoffnung. Denn selten war die Zukunft mit so vielen und großen Unsicherheiten behaftet wie heute: Krieg, Klima, Inflation.

In his riveting new book, Future Tense, Tony Leon captures and analyses recent South African history, with a focus on the squandered and corrupted years of the past decade. With unique access and penetrating insight, Leon presents a portrait of today’s South Africa and prospects for its future, based on his political involvement over thirty years with the key power players.

One of the most fiercely debated issues of this era is what to do about "bad" speech—hate speech, disinformation and propaganda campaigns, and incitement of violence—on the internet, and in particular speech on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. In Social Media, Freedom of Speech, and the Future of Our Democracy, Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey R. Stone have gathered an eminent cast—including Hillary Clinton, Sheldon Whitehouse, Mark Warner, Cass Sunstein, and others—to explore the various dimensions of this problem in the American context.

In The Future We Need, Erica Smiley and Sarita Gupta bring a novel perspective to building worker power and what labor organizing could look like in the future, suggesting ways to evolve collective bargaining to match the needs of modern people, not only changing their wages and working conditions, but being able to govern over more aspects of their lives.

Our world is in a mess. The challenges of climate change, inequality, hunger and a global pandemic mean our way of life seems more imperilled and society more divided than ever; but economics can help! From parenting to organ donation, housing to anti-social behaviour, economics provides the tools we need to fix the biggest issues of today. Far from being a means to predict the stock market or enrich the elite, economics provides a lens through which we can better understand how things work.

As science and technology rapidly permeate our lives, we may soon lose control of their tremendous impact on all facets of our society. Instead of making positive or negative projections, this book delves into the specifics of forthcoming changes and how much impact we may have to direct them in our favor. Closely tied together, the evolution of humankind alongside machines is gearing up for the merging of both and the formation of a new entity: a Simorgh whose decisions will be beyond our control.

Las valiosas reflexiones del político más querido del mundo y del más importante pensador contemporáneo, reunidos por primera vez en Uruguay para llamar a la acción.

This book provides actionable solutions to most of the problems facing the world today, and it all starts with direct democracy. This revolutionary system of government aims to take the power away from short-sighted and self-serving politicians and bring the power to the people through online voting. We must change this broken system and evolve democracy to what it can be in this technological age.

America faces a new culture war. It is not a war about guns, abortions, or gays; rather it is a war against the creeping changes to our entrepreneurial culture, the true bedrock of who we are as a people. The new culture war is a battle between free enterprise and social democracy. Many Americans have forgotten the evils of socialism and the predations of the American Great Society's welfare-state programs.

Dans cet essai, Daniel Cohen décrypte la société d’aujourd’hui et dessine celle du futur.

In this uncompromising essay, Jonathan Crary presents the obvious but unsayable reality: our "digital age" is synonymous with the disastrous terminal stage of global capitalism and its financialization of social existence, mass impoverishment, ecocide, and military terror. Scorched Earth surveys the wrecking of a living world by the internet complex and its devastation of communities and their capacities for mutual support.

Discover the surprising case for how conservatism can help us achieve the epic sci-fi future we were promised. America was once the world’s dream factory. We turned imagination into reality, from curing polio to landing on the Moon to creating the internet. And we were confident that more...

Wheat for a Penny: The Significance of Scarcity in the End Times by César Castro explores the profound implications of scarcity in a world facing unprecedented challenges. Through a blend of insightful analysis and compelling narratives, Castro examines how limited resources impact society, economics, and spirituality during tumultuous times. The book delves into historical precedents of scarcity, drawing parallels to current global crises, while also offering a thought-provoking perspective on the moral and ethical dimensions of resource allocation.

In this era of government gridlock, economic and ecological devastation, and seemingly intractable global violence, our future is ever more ripe for - and in need of - fresh, creative reimagining. With her clear-eyed, inspiring, and sweeping vision of a possible global renaissance in the new millennium, Barbara Marx Hubbard shows us that our current crises are not the precursors of an apocalypse, but the natural birth pains of an awakened, universal humanity.

Lurking in our homes, hiding in our offices, and polluting the air we breathe is something sinister. Something we’ve turned a blind eye to for far too long. Dr. Leonardo Trasande, a pediatrician, professor, and world-renowned researcher, tells the story of how our everyday surroundings are making us sicker, fatter, and poorer. Through a blend of narrative, scientific detective work, and concrete information about the connections between chemicals and disease, he reveals what we can do to protect ourselves and our families in the short-term, and how we can help bring the change we deserve.

In a time of accelerating crises and collapsing certainties, philosophy can no longer remain the distant pursuit of abstract speculation. It must become a way of orientation—a compass for living in a world of complexity, contradiction, and change. This book invites the listener into an integral vision of thought: a philosophy that does not impose dogma but weaves together insights from diverse traditions, sciences, and lived experiences. It shows how no single system contains the whole, yet each carries a fragment of truth waiting to be brought into relation.

The Future of Language distinguishes myth from reality and superstition from scientifically based prediction as it plots out the importance of language and raises questions about its future. From the rise of artificial intelligence and speaking robots, to brain implants and computer-facilitated telepathy, language and communications expert Philip Seargeant surveys the development of new digital ‘languages’ and investigates how conventions of spoken and written language are being modified by new trends in communication.

National Public Radio's Beijing correspondent Rob Gifford recounts his travels along Route 312, the Chinese Mother Road, the longest route in the world's most populous nation. Based on his successful NPR radio series, China Road draws on Gifford's 20 years of observing first-hand this rapidly transforming country, as he travels east to west, from Shanghai to China's border with Kazakhstan. As he takes listeners on this journey, he also takes them through China's past and present while he tries to make sense of this complex nation's potential future.

From one of the most electric and consequential figures to emerge from the contemporary American labor movement, the remarkable story of his battle to create the first Amazon union in the U.S. and a powerful call to arms on behalf of the working class In the early days of the Covid pandemic...