Category: Democracy

The headline message from this post is that the US Senate just passed an amendment denying habeas corpus – a fundamental human right – to anyone detained at Guantanamo Bay. And that’s very bad.

Obsidian Wings has a description of the amendment and its potential effect, written before it passed yesterday. It also has a second post, with more description, written after the vote passed 49-42 on the floor of the Senate.

All is not over yet, but SCOTUSblog and Opinio Juris discusses the consequences for some major human rights cases currently before the Supreme Court.

Update: More in the New York Times.

The Associated Press reports an interesting and readable speech by Al Gore on the problematic interaction of the American media and democracy:

I came here today because I believe that American democracy is in grave danger. It is no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse . I know that I am not the only one who feels that something has gone basically and badly wrong in the way America’s fabled “marketplace of ideas” now functions.

Simon Parker comments on democratisation, and whether there is a need for a mandarinate any more. On a related note, interested readers of this blog shouldn’t forget the meetup on Wednesday – first meeting of the London and Brighton Democracy group, at the Mitre, off Hatton Garden. Details through the last link.

Demos Greenhouse links to the New Economics Foundation’s new Index of Democratic Power, showing how influential your vote is in deciding the government of the country.

The first meeting of the London and Brighton Democracy meetup has been arranged, for 5 October at 1930, at the Mitre, off Hatton Garden.

Plans to trial text and email voting in the 2006 local elections have been abandoned.

Described, acidly, by MeFi

The Power Inquiry, which is still going strong, is proposing that people have dinner with each other and talk about democracy. Raita and representation or polenta and people power? Link via Demos Greenhouse.

Edward Whelan writesin the National Review (US) about US courts that rely on international legal principles in reaching decisions. The argument of originalism is too long to go into here (there are books about it), but I thought it was interesting how the originalist argument made by Mr Whelan relies so much on faith in the ‘genius of the founders’. Unquestioning faith in an ancient text, written by sages for very different conditions – what does that remind you of?

Results from the first round of the Iranian election have pitted a right-winger against … er … an even more right-winger. Interesting to see whether there’ll be a Chriac/LePen vote split next Friday.