Political Science

Timeless comedies on resisting tyranny from one of history’s greatest comic playwrights.

Against Demagogues presents Robert C. Bartlett's new translations of Aristophanes' most overtly political works, the Acharnians and the Knights. In these fantastically inventive, raucous, and raunchy comedies, the powerful politician Cleon proves to be democracy's greatest opponent. With unrivalled power, both plays make clear the dangers to which democracies are prone, especially the threats posed by external warfare, internal division, and class polarization.

Combating the seductive allure of demagogues and the damage they cause, Against Demagogues disentangles Aristophanes' serious teachings from his many jokes and pratfalls, substantiating for modern readers his famous claim to "teach justice" while "making a comedy" of the city. The book features an interpretive essay for each play, expertly guiding readers through the most important plot points, explaining the significance of various characters, and shedding light on the meaning of the plays' often madcap episodes. Along with a contextualizing introduction, Bartlett offers extensive notes explaining the many political, literary, and religious references and allusions. Aristophanes' comedic skewering of the demagogue and his ruthless ambition—and of a community so ill-informed about the doings of its own government, so ready to believe in empty promises and idle flattery—cannot but resonate strongly with readers today around the world.
 

In a world where basic human rights are under attack and discrimination is widespread, Advancing Equality reminds us of the critical role of constitutions in creating and protecting equal rights. Combining a comparative analysis of equal rights in the constitutions of all 193 United Nations member countries with inspiring stories of activism and powerful court cases from around the globe, the book traces the trends in constitution drafting over the past half century and examines how stronger protections against discrimination have transformed lives. Looking at equal rights across gender, race and ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity, disability, social class, and migration status, the authors uncover which groups are increasingly guaranteed equal rights in constitutions, whether or not these rights on paper have been translated into practice, and which nations lag behind. Serving as a comprehensive call to action for anyone who cares about their country’s future, Advancing Equality challenges us to remember how far we all still must go for equal rights for all.

An ambitious study of our obsession with complicity that shows how we can all become "good accomplices."
 
Beyond Complicity is a fascinating cultural diagnosis that identifies our obsession with complicity as a symptom of a deeply divided society. The questions surrounding what it means to be legally complicit are the same ones we may ask ourselves as we evaluate our own and others' responsibility for inherited and ongoing harms, such as racism, sexism, and climate change: What does it mean that someone "knew" they were contributing to wrongdoing? How much involvement must a person have in order to be complicit? At what point are we obligated to intervene?
 
Francine Banner ties together pop culture, politics, law, and social movements to provide a framework for thinking about what we know intuitively: that our society is defined by crisis, risk, and the quest to root out hazards at all costs. Engaging with legal cases, historical examples, and contemporary case studies, Beyond Complicity unfolds the complex role that complicity plays in US law and society today, offering suggestions for how to shift focus away from blame and toward positive, lasting systemic change.

Presidential campaigns of the twenty-first century were not the first to mobilize an array of new media forms in efforts to gain electoral victory. In Politicking and Emergent Media, distinguished historian Charles Musser looks at four US presidential campaigns during the long 1890s (1888–1900) as Republicans and Democrats deployed a variety of media forms to promote their candidates and platforms. New York—the crucial swing state as well as the home of Wall Street, Tammany Hall, and prominent media industries—became the site of intense struggle as candidates argued over trade issues, currency standards, and a new overseas empire. If the city’s leading daily newspapers were mostly Democratic as the decade began, Republicans eagerly exploited alternative media opportunities. Using the stereopticon (a modernized magic lantern), they developed the first campaign documentaries. Soon they were exploiting motion pictures, the phonograph, and telephone in surprising and often successful ways. Brimming with rich historical details, Musser’s remarkable tale reveals the political forces driving the emergence of modern media.

The complete guide to debunking right-wing misinterpretations of the Bible—from economics and immigration to gender and sexuality.

Jesus loves borders, guns, unborn babies, and economic prosperity and hates homosexuality, taxes, welfare, and universal healthcare—or so say many Republican politicians, pundits, and preachers. Through outrageous misreadings of the New Testament gospels that started almost a century ago, conservative influencers have conjured a version of Jesus who speaks to their fears, desires, and resentments.

In Republican Jesus, Tony Keddie explains not only where this right-wing Christ came from and what he stands for but also why this version of Jesus is a fraud. By restoring Republicans’ cherry-picked gospel texts to their original literary and historical contexts, Keddie dismantles the biblical basis for Republican positions on hot-button issues like Big Government, taxation, abortion, immigration, and climate change. At the same time, he introduces readers to an ancient Jesus whose life experiences and ethics were totally unlike those of modern Americans, conservatives and liberals alike.
 

The Demilitarized Society diagnoses the economic and allied decay caused by militarism, and formulates a set of proposals — political and economic — for demilitarizing our societies. It argues for building a coalition to challenge the power of the war-making institutions, composed of those occupations and interests which are deprived by the misapplication of resources to armaments. The deterioration of the infrastructure and productivity of society can only be reversed by the proper use of social capital. Adequate housing, health services, education, roads, public transportation, environmental cleanup, urban renovation, care of our children and the aged are all frustrated by the misuse of the capital fund to build weapons that are too terrible to be used and whose use would result in omnicide.

Industrialized nations - East and West - face this dilemma in common with much of the less developed world. Once the superpowers embark on the simultaneous course of disarmament and economic conversion, it will be in their interest and essentially within their power to ensure that the blocs they control and other nations within their spheres of influence do likewise.

The author provides a reliable "road map" to disarmament which would secure the jobs of those presently employed in military production and administration, and even the legal framework necessary for all nations to follow.

Local government in the UK is in crisis. It is now neither local in terms of the geography and populations of its principle units, nor does it truly govern in these areas. As this book reveals, over the previous 200 years local government has moved from a system in which local interests held governance over localities to one in which central government and national and multi-national agencies such as corporate businesses hold governance over local and community decision-making. These changes seriously undermine the important role that local government can play in liberal democracy in the UK. The book explains the nature of local government today and asks if there is any possibility of change.

Since the early 2000s, Turkey has shown an unprecedented interest in its diaspora. This book provides the first in-depth examination of the institutionalisation of Turkey's diaspora engagement policy since the Justice and Development Party's rise to power in 2002, the Turkish diaspora's new role as an agent of diplomatic goals, and how Turkey's growing sphere of influence affects intra-diaspora politics and diplomatic relations with Europe. The book is based on fieldwork in Turkey, France and Germany, and interviews conducted with diaspora organisation leaders and policymakers.

Diasporas have become transformative for relations at the state-to-state level and blur the division between the domestic and the foreign. A case study of Turkey's diasporas is significant at a time when emigrants from Turkey form the largest Muslim community in Europe and when issues of diplomacy, migration and citizenship have become more salient than ever.

This book documents the political and cosmological processes through which the idea of ‘total territorial rule’ came into being in the context of early- to mid-nineteenth-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Analysing ideas at the core of the modern international system, Pluriversal sovereignty and the state develops a decolonial theoretical framework informed by a ‘pluriverse’ of multiple ontologies of sovereignty to argue that the territorial state itself is an outcome of imperial globalisation.
Anti-colonialism up to the middle of the nineteenth century was grounded in genealogies and practices of sovereignty that developed in many localities. By the second half of the century, however, the global state system and the states within it were forming through colonising and anti-colonising vectors. By focusing on the ontological conflicts that shaped the state and empire, we can rethink the birth of the British Raj and locate it in Ceylon some 50 years earlier than in India. In this way, the book makes a theoretical contribution to postcolonial and decolonial studies in globalisation and international relations by considering the ontological significance of ‘total territorial rule’ as it emerged historically in Ceylon.

Through emphasising one important manifestation of modernity and coloniality — the territorial state — the book contributes to studies in the politics of ontological pluralism in sovereignty, postcolonial and decolonial international studies, and globalisation through colonial encounters.

A unflinching audit of the damage done by fourteen years of Conservative government.

What went wrong with Britain? presents a comprehensive account of the devastating legacy left by the Conservative government. Shining a light into every dark corner, the book exposes the full extent of the damage inflicted on the country’s economy, social fabric and political integrity.

When the Conservatives were voted out of government in July 2024, they left behind a miserable record of rising poverty, inequality and division. This book reveals the forces that have driven the country to the point of crisis, from austerity and economic mismanagement to sheer political dysfunction. Each chapter offers new insights into the far-reaching consequences of government policies that prioritised ideology, personal ambition and party politics over the public good.

Examining the rise of populism, the politics of Brexit, the UK’s response to the pandemic and the steady erosion of public trust, this shocking account of the legacy of Conservative government from 2010 to 2024 is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand exactly what went wrong with Britain.

The notion of ‘clickbait’ speaks to the intersection of money, technology, and desire, suggesting a cunning ruse to profit from unsavoury inclinations of one kind or another. Clickbait capitalism pursues the idea that the entire contemporary economy is just such a ruse; an elaborate exercise in psychological capture and release.

Pushing beyond rationalist accounts of economic life, this volume puts psychoanalysis and political economy into conversation with the cutting edges of capitalist development. Perennial questions of death, sex, aggression, enjoyment, despair, hope, and revenge are followed onto the terrain of the contemporary, with chapters devoted to social media, online dating apps, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and meme stocks. The result is a unique and compelling portrait of the latest institutions to stage, channel, or reconfigure the psychic energies of political and economic life.

How do governing elites in the global South attempt to remake hegemony in a conjuncture of durable crisis? This is the question at the core of Southern interregnum, a comparative conjunctural analysis of hegemonic projects in Brazil, India, China, and South Africa.
Working with a Gramscian notion of crisis, centred on the interregnum as an enduring period of instability and uncertainty, in which hegemonic authority erodes and competing projects for crisis resolution emerge, the book proposes a novel critical reading of the convulsions that are currently reshaping the political economy of the global South and the world-system.
Mapping the variegated trajectories of elite projects to reconcile accumulation and legitimation – and probing the limits of these projects – the book breaks new ground in the study of the contemporary global South.

In the 1970s, Nestlé became a lightning rod for criticism against the food industry’s negative impacts on humans and their environment, especially in the Global South. But what has so far eluded historical scrutiny is that the picture was more nuanced.
This book tells the exclusive story of how the Swiss food giant, and more broadly corporate capitalism, have shaped the aid industry since the late nineteenth century. It follows Nestlé’s bid for a share of the humanitarian market brokered by the Red Cross in wartime Europe, of its clinical trials in Swiss and Senegalese maternities, and of its agricultural modernisation schemes in Mexico, India, and the Ivory Coast.
Based on extensive research in the firm’s own historical archives and the records of national and international aid agencies, the volume interrogates the legacies of this long history for international development today.

"... I consider that Professor Bryant has produced
an extremely valuable study of problems of development related to the use and ownership of land within the laws, customs and usages of western society. This is very pertinent at the present time in its discussion of the achievements of planned development by both private and public agencies against a background of ownership and interests in land. To my knowledge there is no other comparable work covering this field. The solution to the urgent problems arising from rapid urbanization is being frustrated by the rapid increase in development land values which is a cause of concern both to public and private agencies." Malcolm Reece, Deputy County Planning Officer, County of East Sussex, England

"The theme is extremely timely at this particular juncture ...because this is a time when governments are starting to take some initiative in shaping our environments... The acquisition of land on an unprecedented scale... inevitably faces public authorities with a classical dilemma — the very actions they contemplate raise land prices and erect barriers to the fulfillment of the programmes." L. O. Gertler, Director-General, Research, Ministry of State for Urban Affairs, Ottawa

“TURNAROUND is a powerful challenge from my friend Senator James Lankford to pay more attention to who we are, rather than just what we do. James’ practical leadership ideas will encourage you to live your faith and find impactful ways to serve our community and our great nation. Every chapter is packed with history, humor and inspiration to be part of our national turnaround.“—MIKE POMPEO

“Senator James Lankford lives his faith with humility, grace, collegiality, and authenticity. In this book he adroitly puts his finger precisely on the key to change and revival in our country. The key is US. This book is both a challenge and a chance for us to reflect and act.”—TREY GOWDY

“To turnaround our country we are tempted to spend our energy fighting darkness, but you can’t turn down darkness, you can only turn up light. In a dark room, you look for the light switch, not the dark switch. For some reason, that simple truth seems to escape us when we think about people and problems. If you want less darkness, turn up more light.”

—Senator James Lankford

Americans live in the greatest representative republic in the history of the planet which is defined each day by “We the People.” Everyday, the nation is US.

When we look in our national mirror, if we don’t like what we see, we should do what it takes to improve our reflection.

TURNAROUND is a journey book, filled with ancient truths, our modern division, personal faith, true stories, a case study on immigration politics, and a lesson about the bees that will kill you.

The pages are a celebration of our freedom and a challenge to reconnect to our faith and do something significant with our lives. The stories are deeply personal and practical. 

TURNAROUND challenges us to step up and do something when we see the nation is drifting. We should not just allow cultural gravity to win. Each of us get the choice everyday to do the right thing, the right way.

Let’s pray and get to work on our national turnaround.

From the Spanish Civil War to postpunk London—this is the untold story of a legendary community space where anarchy meant action.

For the first time, the tangled twelve-year history of the Centro Iberico is unraveled and laid bare—a story that begins in the trenches of antifascist resistance and ends in a squatted school echoing with experimental noise and uncompromising politics.

At its heart is a Spanish anarchist who fought the Nazis, survived a death sentence under Franco, and spent his final years keeping the flame of resistance alive from exile in London. His survival and the inauguration of the Centro Iberico were thanks to London's anarchist underground, which maintained a foothold and kept the torches burning before finding new life amid punk’s co-optation of “anarchy” as a youth culture phenomenon. Around him gathered an intergenerational network of political anarchists, punks, squatters, and artists—keeping the Centro Iberia alive through state harassment, shifting countercultural tides, and one of the most absurd antiterror trials in British history.

A sanctuary for radical organizing and a crucible for underground sounds, the Centro Iberico was the UK’s only enduring anarchist center of the 1980s. It served as a vital hub that connected international political prisoner support efforts led by the Anarchist Black Cross to anarchist  movements abroad, while sustaining its own activities in support of the cause.

This is its definitive story—a vivid, deeply researched account of a space where ideology, art, and defiance collided.

Re-Defining Terrorism examines the emergence of the counter-radicalisation agenda in the UK and internationally. Offering original insights into counter-radicalisation’s extensive effects, Itoiz Rodrigo Jusué offers a complete and innovative examination of the development of counter-radicalisation discourses and policies.

Outlining (counter)radicalisation as a new technology of governance embedded in the production and promotion of particular mentalities, conducts, identities, and subjectivities, the chapters investigate the transformations that the figure of the terrorist has gone through since the early 2000s and stresses the role of the media in the (re)production of new imaginaries of terror. Based on a large amount of rich qualitative data, the author shows how vocabularies and narratives of (counter)radicalisation are disseminated in popular culture establishing new lens through which terrorism and political violence are comprehended and acted upon in the UK and beyond.

Breaking fresh ground where the counter-radicalisation (and counter-extremism) agenda is still a relatively new and developing phenomenon in the UK and globally, this is compelling reading for policymakers, practitioners, undergraduate and post-graduate students and scholars across disciplines including critical studies on terrorism; criminology; media and communication studies; cultural studies; gender studies; social policy; and peace and conflict studies.

This book illustrates how different forces shape ideas, knowledge traditions, policies, processes, institutions and everyday lives to domesticate both people and the planet in pursuit of profit. It examines the myriad ways in which contemporary ruling and non-ruling elites influence politics, culture, economy and religion and shape our daily interactions, emphasising their impact on individuals, families, communities, democratic praxis, societal structures and nature. The book portrays power structures that are skewed in a manner that marginalises many while upholding the interests of a few. It depicts numerous contradictions inherent in capitalism and the state, while also presenting alternative ideas drawn from the everyday experiences of working people.
State and capitalism territorialise and deterritorialise lives and livelihoods. It destabilises social, cultural and economic relationships. Everyday crises are manufactured, and conflicts are designed to divert the masses from exploring alternatives to capitalism. This strategy aims to maintain the status quo by ensuring that attention and resources are consistently focused on the accumulation of wealth and prosperity for a few, thereby preventing widespread consideration of alternative and egalitarian systems and processes for mass welfare.

A decade of American society coming apart.

Every Fire Needs a Little Bit of Help collects a decade of reflections on recent US struggles—Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and the George Floyd Rebellion—alongside accounts of the rise of Trumpism, the alt-right, an apocalyptic shift in popular culture, to paint a dense and complex portrait of a decade of protracted social crisis. Jarrod Shanahan reports from the ground. On the streets in 2014, from the depths of the Rikers Island penal complex, inside the alt-right underground and the carnival of Trump rallies, and in the line of fire in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2020, among other scenes that Shanahan accessed not as a credentialed observer but an active participant: prisoner, infiltrator, activist. The resulting essays outline the pitfalls and opportunities facing those seeking to reverse the suicidal course of capitalist society and build a liberated world.

Shadows of the Enlightenment sheds light on the deeply political agenda underlying Western science from the so-called “Age of Reason” to the present. George McCarthy uncovers the economic, social, and historical origins of modern science, and illuminates the a priori and innate features which furnish the justifications for the technical domination and control of nature and humanity.

The natural sciences were born of a market economy, commercial trade, and industrial production, and were furthermore reflective of the values and institutions of modern capitalism and its class system in the seventeenth century. As such, one of the central roles of Western science has been to legitimate its theoretical imperative to dominate nature and to reorganize human labor for profit, property, and power. Breaking with the medieval scholastic tradition, modern science viewed nature as a reified mechanism which could be mathematically measured, empirically predicted, causally explained, and managed. Nature itself was recast as a dead machine stripped of any inherent meaning or purpose.

Ultimately, when applied to the production process, the field of natural science led to scientific management and economic exploitation; and when applied in the academy, particularly to the social sciences, the field of natural science led to the eclipse of reason and the twilight of social theory. Building upon the radical analysis of Marx and Engels, Shadows of the Enlightenment articulates a new liberatory postmodern science and technology grounded in Marx’s theory of social justice, integrating ancient and modern traditions from classical Greece to the French Revolution, from the Paris Commune to the Iroquois Confederacy. In the process, McCarthy invites us to move beyond the falsely mechanistic sense of reality, and to break free from the sense of alienation that binds us all—all in order to make space for dreaming up a substantively democratic society.

Toppling the First Ministry, by T. M. Thomas Isaac and Richard W. Franke, tells the story of the CIA’s covert operations against India’s first Communist ministry. When Kerala, the south-west Indian coastal province, established its first Communist ministry in 1957, it immediately drew up a development schema rooted in plans to redistribute land and provide public education and healthcare to all. But as quickly as it began executing its vision, Kerala’s efforts were disrupted by anti-communist agitation that succeeded in toppling the ministry with the help of the CIA. To this day, the CIA has not claimed any direct role in toppling Kerala’s government


Kerala is not alone. From Guatemala to Iran to the Congo to Brazil, to Indonesia and beyond, the CIA put up the financing to generate street mobs, groomed thuggish political bosses to do the CIA’s bidding, organized private armies that answered to the CIA, bought and controlled media and individuals, assassinated popular leaders, and toppled elected ministries in an effort to maintain or establish U.S. control of the political and economic systems. One could see the story of Kerala as just one more tragic example of the CIA’s successful efforts to manipulate the course of history and disrupt everyday life in countless emerging post-colonial nations following WWII. And yet, Kerala stands apart as an exceptional case, remarkable for what it managed to achieve: a redistributive strategy of development and consequent high quality of life for its ordinary citizens, initially at a relatively low level of economic growth. Since then, bolstered by subsequent intermittent left-led governments, Kerala`s democratic development alternative has continued to flourish.


Drawing upon the recent revelation of thousands of pages of documents via the Freedom of Information Act, Isaac and Franke offer a detailed examination of the internal workings of the CIA and its local Kerala allies in subverting and ultimately overthrowing the newly elected ministry. They also show how, against all odds, Kerala continues to be a stronghold of the left in India and even across the globe.

A remarkable personal journey through the life and writings of the great Sardinian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci

In June 2023, author Andy Merrifield and his partner and their daughter moved from the UK to Rome, she to take a new job, he to get his creative juices flowing again, and both to begin a new life. A short time later, he visited Gramsci’s grave at the Non-Catholic Cemetery, home as well to the great Romantics, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats. Soon he took a volunteer position helping to maintain the cemetery and as it turned out, to keep a watchful eye on Gramsci’s tombstone, admiring the roses and notes that visitors left, talking to some of them and communing with the sentinel cat that kept watch near the gravesite. Thus began Merrifield’s deep dive into Gramsci’s life.

The result is a stunning portrait that offers fresh insights into nearly every aspect of Gramsci’s often tortured existence: a childhood scarred by severe health problems; his growing understanding of political economy; his generosity and kindness; his grasp of the culture of workers and peasants; his friendship with the economist Piero Sraffa; and his frustration trying to communicate with and be father to the son he never saw. Above all, Merrifield illuminates how Gramsci kept his humanity, suffering horribly in prison while writing a revolutionary classic, The Prison Notebooks.

Personal, compassionate, moving—and illustrated with the author’s photographs —Merrifield revives both the legacy and meaning of Gramsci’s work and the dying art of belles lettres. Roses for Gramsci is an evocative and indelible book.

“The societies of the dominated periphery no longer can wait,” said the great Egyptian economist Samir Amin, over half a century ago in the lively and readable book, Imperialism and Unequal Development. “With every passing year, the material conditions of their vast masses becomes more intolerable, which the palliatives of capitalist integration becomes increasingly worthless,” he continued, while noting that, in response to this acute and prolonged suffering, the renaissance of Marxism also characterized the very same years in which he wrote. This Marxist renaissance originated in those parts of the world, he showed, have been and continue to be the scene of decisive revolutionary struggles—that is, in the exploited and oppressed periphery of the world capitalist system, primarily, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

With the freshness and originality that readers came to expect from Amin Imperialism and Unequal Development dealt with an extraordinarily wide range of topics, from “Historical Materialism: Capitalism and Socialism” and “Imperialism and Underdevelopment,” to “Problems of Transition and the Construction of Socialism.” Pointing to the relationship between regions at the frontlines of capitalist and neocolonial degradation, and the renaissance in Marxist thought, Amin argued that Marxism has always been “neither an economic theory, a sociological theory, nor a philosophy, but the social science of revolutionary socialist praxis.”

Una defensa sin precedentes del poder hispano en el tablero geopolítico mundial.

Pedro Baños invita a toda la comunidad hispana a unir fuerzas para afrontar en posición ventajosa el cambio de paradigma geopolítico y los desafíos de la reconfiguración de poderes en el contexto mundial. Se trata de una visión de largo alcance que levanta las barreras nacionales y proyecta un espacio atlántico igualitario y panhispánico. La idea es construir un ámbito colectivo que permita tener una voz propia, poderosa e influyente en el mundo. De ello depende la futura prosperidad de nuestros países.

A través de la historia y la identidad cultural compartida por todos los pueblos hispanos, Baños arranca desde los Aztecas hasta la independencia de la España ultramarina y los intereses británicos y estadounidenses posteriores, pasando por la leyenda negra, para concluir con el análisis de los propósitos actuales de potencias como China. En la historia y en las raíces del inmenso valor cultural de nuestra diversidad se encuentran los sólidos argumentos de esta propuesta. Una diversidad que es la misma esencia de la Hispanidad. Desde ella es posible crear un proyecto común, marcar objetivos y trabajar por la consecución de una verdadera hermandad de los países hispanos, compatibilizando los intereses particulares de cada nación.

La Hispanidad se enfrenta ahora al reto de buscar un lugar preeminente en el escenario geopolítico mundial, conquistar su propio espacio a través de alianzas trasatlánticas que permitan afrontar retos más ambiciosos. No podemos seguir a merced de las potencias dominantes, actuales y futuras. Los pueblos hispanos poseemos suficiente entidad en todos los ámbitos, como para constituirnos en la potencia mundial que merecemos ser.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

An unprecedented defense of Hispanic power on the global geopolitical board.

Pedro Baños invites the entire Hispanic community to unite forces to face the geopolitical paradigm shift and the challenges of the reconfiguration of powers in the global context from a position of advantage. It is a long-term vision that breaks down national barriers and projects an egalitarian and pan-Hispanic Atlantic space. The idea is to build a collective sphere that allows us to have our own powerful and influential voice in the world. The future prosperity of our countries depends on it.

Through the history and cultural identity shared by all Hispanic peoples, Baños starts from the Aztecs to the independence of overseas Spain and the subsequent British and American interests, passing through the black legend, to conclude with the analysis of the current purposes of powers like China. In the history and roots of the immense cultural value of our diversity lie the solid arguments of this proposal. A diversity that is the very essence of Hispanidad. From it, it is possible to create a common project, set goals, and work towards achieving a true brotherhood of Hispanic countries, reconciling the particular interests of each nation.

Hispanidad now faces the challenge of seeking a preeminent place on the global geopolitical stage, conquering its own space through transatlantic alliances that allow us to face more ambitious challenges. We cannot continue to be at the mercy of the dominant powers, current and future. Hispanic peoples have enough entity in all areas to become the world power we deserve to be.

A comprehensive blueprint for a new post-capitalist order—which values our collective future over immediate economic gains

The fate of all economic systems is written in the energy flows they obtain from the natural world. Our collective humanity very much depends on nature—for joy, for comfort, and for sheer survival. In his prescient new book, The Physics of Capitalism, Erald Kolasi explores the deep ecological physics of human existence by developing a new theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between economic systems and the wider natural world.

Nature is full of complex and dynamic systems that are constantly interacting with our societies. The collective physical interactions of the natural world guide and forge many fundamental features of human societies and civilizations. Humanity does not exist on a magical pedestal above the rest of reality; we are just one slice in a grand continuum of physical systems that interact, combine, and transform over time. We too belong to the natural world. And it’s this critical fact that controls the long-term fate of our economies and civilizations. Among all the living organisms that have called this blue marble home, humans are a very recent species. In that short period of time, we have managed to become one of the most dominant life forms in the history of the planet, creating powerful civilizations with elaborate cultures, large populations, and extensive trade networks. We have been nomads and farmers, scientists and lawyers, nurses and doctors, welders and blacksmiths. Our achievements are both astonishing and unprecedented, but they also carry great risks.

Throughout history, economic growth has depended heavily on people converting more energy from their natural environments and concentrating the resulting energy flows towards the application of specific tasks. The economic and demographic growth of human civilization over the last ten thousand years has profoundly impacted natural ecosystems throughout the planet, triggering major instabilities across the biosphere that threaten to reverberate on civilization and to destabilize its long-term trajectory. Swamped with multiple ecological challenges of historic proportions, global civilization now stands at a critical tipping point that deserves closer scrutiny. If we are to have any hope of addressing the difficult challenges we face, then we must begin by understanding them and appreciating their complexity. And then, we must act. This book offers a comprehensive blueprint for our collective future, pointing the way to a new post-capitalist order that can provide long-term viability and stability for human civilization on a global scale.

Since the 2016 upsurge in enthusiasm for electoral organizing and party-building, the terrain has shifted. It was not so long ago that a new wave of democratic socialist organizing exploded onto the scene. Quickly, the defeat of candidates such as Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn had a deflating effect. This followed on the crumbling of the “new parties” in Europe: In Greece, Syriza buckled in the face of the iron straitjacket imposed by EU institutions; in Spain, Podemos fractured under the weight of its ideological and institutional weaknesses; and Bloco fared no better in Portugal. Meanwhile, the Chavez-inspired Bolivarian revolutions in Latin America hit an impasse, barely stumbling along. We find socialist strategy again at a crossroads, pressed by the urgent need to find new directions forward amidst mounting crises.

Some on the left searching for new paths forward saw little alternative but to support authoritarian neoliberal states in their coercive response to a rising tide of hard-right forces, as if the repressive and bloody campaigns launched by powerful states could constitute junior components of anti-fascist ‘popular fronts’. Others in the left turned to the workplace, taking new approaches to union organizing, seeking to build a working-class base for radical politics—whose absence seemed directly responsible for another round of defeats. At this new conjuncture, what was left of the strategy, tactics, and organizations that had seemed so promising? Was the ‘new socialist’ left starting over, or moving on? This year’s Socialist Register 2025 engages with the openings and closures of at the crossroads of Socialist strategy, with case studies from Britain, US, Pakistan, Argentina, Germany, Bolivia, Barcelona, and Turkey, engaging with topics such as social struggles over climate change, Palestine solidarity, public banks, re-municipalization of utilities, and unions.

Fascism or Whatever You Want to Call It constructs a crucial framework for diagnosing and exposing fascist ideologies and movements in whatever historical and geographical circumstances or disguises they may appear. At no point in history have so many people been subjected to the rule or threat of fascist movements. Nor have power and privilege ever been so concentrated in the hands of a few. We are living in the age of the decline of bourgeois liberalism and the rise of something much less democratic, something sectarian, extremist, militaristic, and exclusionary, which should be called fascism. Because fascism deploys endless camouflaging strategies, a critical theory for diagnosing and analyzing it is desperately needed. That is what this book offers. Arguing against conventional approaches that use the European model of the 1930s as a yardstick, Bahozde conceptualizes fascism as a form, rather than a system, of power and ideology.

Since the 2016 upsurge in enthusiasm for electoral organizing and party-building, the terrain has shifted. It was not so long ago that a new wave of democratic socialist organizing exploded onto the scene. Quickly, the defeat of candidates such as Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn had a deflating effect. This followed on the crumbling of the “new parties” in Europe: In Greece, Syriza buckled in the face of the iron straitjacket imposed by EU institutions; in Spain, Podemos fractured under the weight of its ideological and institutional weaknesses; and Bloco fared no better in Portugal. Meanwhile, the Chavez-inspired Bolivarian revolutions in Latin America hit an impasse, barely stumbling along. We find socialist strategy again at a crossroads, pressed by the urgent need to find new directions forward amidst mounting crises.

Some on the left searching for new paths forward saw little alternative but to support authoritarian neoliberal states in their coercive response to a rising tide of hard-right forces, as if the repressive and bloody campaigns launched by powerful states could constitute junior components of anti-fascist ‘popular fronts’. Others in the left turned to the workplace, taking new approaches to union organizing, seeking to build a working-class base for radical politics—whose absence seemed directly responsible for another round of defeats. At this new conjuncture, what was left of the strategy, tactics, and organizations that had seemed so promising? Was the ‘new socialist’ left starting over, or moving on? This year’s Socialist Register 2025 engages with the openings and closures of at the crossroads of Socialist strategy, with case studies from Britain, US, Pakistan, Argentina, Germany, Bolivia, Barcelona, and Turkey, engaging with topics such as social struggles over climate change, Palestine solidarity, public banks, re-municipalization of utilities, and unions.

An in depth and scholarly report on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an essential actor on behalf of modern-day Kurds

The Kurds, who number some 28 million people in the Middle East, have no country they can call their own. Long ignored by the West, Kurds are now highly visible actors on the world's political stage. More than half live in Turkey, where the Kurdish struggle has gained new strength and attention since the U.S. overthrow of Saddam Hussein in neighboring Iraq.

Essential to understanding modern-day Kurds—and their continuing demands for an independent state—is understanding the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. A guerilla force that was founded in 1978 by a small group of ex-Turkish university students, the PKK radicalized the Kurdish national movement in Turkey, becoming a tightly organized, well-armed fighting force of some 15,000, with a 50,000-member civilian militia in Turkey and tens of thousands of active backers in Europe. Under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan, the war the PKK waged in Turkey through 1999 left nearly 40,000 people dead and drew in the neighboring states of Iran, Iraq, and Syria, all of whom sought to use the PKK for their own purposes. Since 2004, emboldened by the Iraqi Kurds, who now have established an autonomous Kurdish state in the northernmost reaches of Iraq, the PKK has again turned to violence to meet its objectives.

Blood and Belief combines reportage and scholarship to give the first in-depth account of the PKK. Aliza Marcus, one of the first Western reporters to meet with PKK rebels, wrote about their war for many years for a variety of prominent publications before being put on trial in Turkey for her reporting. Based on her interviews with PKK rebels and their supporters and opponents throughout the world—including the Palestinians who trained them, the intelligence services that tracked them, and the dissidents who tried to break them up—Marcus provides an in-depth account of this influential radical group.

In First Person Political, Grant Reeher combats the public's alienation from and distrust of politicians by putting a personal face on everyday political life. Through moving personal interviews, Reeher allows legislators to tell their own stories about how and why they came to politics, the experience of serving in their state legislature, their decisions to stay or leave, and the many trials they face in the name of public service. Reeher contends that these politicians do have the public good in mind and often suffer great personal losses for their chance to represent the people and fight for what they think is right. His research also shows that those who choose to run for office often come from a background of deep community involvement.
Reeher argues against public cynicism about our elected officials, and his profiles stir not only our praise and respect for these legislators, but also a greater belief in the democratic process itself. The excerpts from his interviews provide a rarely afforded intimate look at these politicians. What emerges from these stories is a humane and believable portrait of public servants acting on behalf of the public good, a portrait that should provide some comfort, perhaps even inspiration, for citizens concerned about the state of American democracy.

Wide-ranging essays demonstrate how the consequences of inequality extend throughout society and the political economy

Despite the transition from apartheid to democracy, South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. Its extremes of wealth and poverty undermine intensifying struggles for a better life for all. The wide-ranging essays in this sixth volume of the New South African Review demonstrate how the consequences of inequality extend throughout society and the political economy, crippling the quest for social justice, polarising the politics, skewing economic outcomes and bringing devastating environmental consequences in their wake. Contributors survey the extent and consequences of inequality across fields as diverse as education, disability, agrarian reform, nuclear geography and small towns, and tackle some of the most difficult social, political and economic issues. How has the quest for greater equality affected progressive political discourse? How has inequality reproduced itself, despite best intentions in social policy, to the detriment of the poor and the historically disadvantaged? How have shifts in mining and the financialisation of the economy reshaped the contours of inequality? How does inequality reach into the daily social life of South Africans, and shape the way in which they interact? How does the extent and shape of inequality in South Africa compare with that of other major countries of the global South which themselves are notorious for their extremes of wealth and poverty? South African extremes of inequality reflect increasing inequality globally, and The Crisis of Inequality will speak to all those general readers, policy makers, researchers and students who are demanding a more equal world.

Frederick Douglass and George Fitzhugh disagreed on virtually every major issue of the day. On slavery, women's rights, and the preservation of the Union their opinions were diametrically opposed. Where Douglass thundered against the evils of slavery, Fitzhugh counted its many alleged blessings in ways that would make modern readers cringe. What then could the leading abolitionist of the day and the most prominent southern proslavery intellectual possibly have in common? According to David F. Ericson, the answer is as surprising as it is simple; liberalism.
In The Debate Over Slavery David F. Ericson makes the controversial argument that despite their many ostensible differences, most Northern abolitionists and Southern defenders of slavery shared many common commitments: to liberal principles; to the nation; to the nation's special mission in history; and to secular progress. He analyzes, side-by-side, pro and antislavery thinkers such as Lydia Marie Child, Frederick Douglass, Wendell Phillips, Thomas R. Dew, and James Fitzhugh to demonstrate the links between their very different ideas and to show how, operating from liberal principles, they came to such radically different conclusions. His raises disturbing questions about liberalism that historians, philosophers, and political scientists cannot afford to ignore.

A distinguished group of scholars explore the moral values and political consequences of privatization

The 21st century has seen a proliferation of privatization across industries in the United States, from security and the military to public transportation and infrastructure. In shifting control from the state to private actors, do we weaken or strengthen structures of governance? Do state-owned enterprises promise to be more equal and fair than their privately-owned rivals? What role can accountability measures play in mediating the effects of privatization; and what role does coercion play in the state governance and control? In this latest installment from the NOMOS series, an interdisciplinary group of distinguished scholars in political science, law, and philosophy examine the moral and political consequences of transferring state-provided or state-owned goods and services to the private sector.

The essays consider how we should evaluate the decision to privatize, both with respect to the quality of outcomes that might be produced, and in terms of the effects of privatization on the core values underlying democratic decision-making. Privatization also affects the structure of governance in a variety of important ways, and these essays evaluate the consequences of privatization on the state. Privatization sheds new light on these highly salient questions of contemporary political life and institutional design.

One hundred years ago, “October 1917” galvanized leftists and oppressed peoples around the globe, and became the lodestar for 20th century politics. Today, the left needs to reckon with this legacy—and transcend it. Social change, as it was understood in the 20th century, appears now to be as impossible as revolution, leaving the left to rethink the relationship between capitalist crises, as well as the conceptual tension between revolution and reform.

Populated by an array of passionate thinkers and thoughtful activists, Rethinking Revolution reappraises the historical effects of the Russian revolution—positive and negative—on political, intellectual, and cultural life, and looks at consequent revolutions after 1917. Change needs to be understood in relation to the distinct trajectories of radical politics in different regions. But the main purpose of this Socialist Register edition—one century after “Red October”—is to look forward, to what might happen next.

Acclaimed authors interrogate and explore compelling issues, including:

• Greg Albo: New socialist strategies—or detours?

• Jodi Dean: Are the multitudes communing? Revolutionary agency and political forms today.

• Adolph Reed: Are racial minorities revolutionary agents?

• Zillah Eisenstein: Revolutionary feminisms today.

• Nina Power: Accelerated technology, decelerated revolution.

• David Schwartzman: Beyond global warming: Is solar communism possible?

• Andrea Malm: Revolution and counter-revolution in an era of climate change.