Establishing Indigeneity in African Pluralities usingPRO169 Parameters and a Case Study for Measuring their Inclusivity Originally published by African and Asian Studies, 10(4), 2011, Pp. 323-346. [PRO169. Code from the International Labour Organization where I once interned (back in 2009, Geneva). I think I liked getting into a suit and taking careful (well, I hoped) […]
A Book review of John Keane's 'Life and Death of Democracy'
A Book review of John Keane’s 2009 Life and Death of Democracy Originally published by Social Alternatives, 29(3), 2010, Pp. 70. [Stilted and not expressive of how deeply I enjoyed Keane’s book. I’ll need, at some point, to upload pictures of the marginalia from my hardback copy. The thousand or so pages, cover-to-cover, are littered […]
Non-human Democracy: our political vocabulary has no room for animals Originally published by The Conversation, December 22, 2015. [The idea for this three part essay first started forming in 2011/2012 namely due to the work of Thomas Seeley, author of much, but for me, it was his book “Honeybee Democracy” which stands out most. The explanation that […]
The Subalterns and Unknowns of Democracy
The Subalterns and Unknowns of Democracy Originally published as Chapter 1 of Evolutionary Basic Democracy: ACritical Overture, 2013, Pp. 15-33. [This chapter was inspired by the literature on “democracy before democracy” as Yves Schemeil once put it or by the considered view that democracy, like its antonym autocracy, can spring and has sprung up in […]
The Taliban Did Not Create the Taliban, Imperialism Did
The Taliban Did Not Create the Taliban, Imperialism Did Originally published in the Journal of South Asian Development, 7(1), 2012, Pp. 23-42. [The idea to write this essay came forcefully whilst I was reading histories of Afghanistan (if you write professionally or otherwise you’ll probably have experienced the force of an argument that simply needs […]
Democracy expresses itself in many ways
Democracy expresses itself in many ways Originally published by The Conversation, February 2, 2018. [This short essay is my contribution to a collection of 20 responses that I curated in late 2017. I was driven to do this because of the frustratingly over-simplified narrative being repeated by the mass media that “democracy is dying” or […]
Suppressed Democracy in China: Theoretical Rationalisation using a Cosmopolitan Methodology
Surpressed Democracy in China: Theoretical Rationalisation using a Cosmopolitan Methodology Originally published February 9, 2011, by the Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (online April 1, 2014). [How red-cheeked one can get running into a short, brash, essay written by their younger self. Nearly ten years have passed since this small push in a magazine […]
A Book Review of David Marquand's The End of the West: The once and future Europe
A Book Review of David Marquand’s 2012 The End of the West: The once and future Europe Originally published by Social Alternatives, 30(3), 2012, Pp. 42-43. [To say that I learned from this book is an understatement. It forced open my eyes to the unboundable idea of “Europe” and that many of the marks of […]
As Berlusconi exits, is democratic reform the next real step for Europe?
As Berlusconi exits, is democratic reform the next real step for Europe? Originally published by The Conversation, November 11, 2011. [The seed for TaxTrack—an idea that would be published years later, in a different forum, and with Australia in mind (but it can be applied in other contexts, too)— is found in this short essay. Having […]
Competitive Regulation: Stepping Outside the Public/Private Policy Debate
Competitive Regulation: Stepping Outside the Public/Private Policy Debate Originally published August 17, 2011, by the Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (online March 31, 2014). [The spark for this short essay came from reading into two discrete sets of literature: that on non-violent democracy and the other on harmless democracy. To be fair, it’s really […]
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