Democratic Distinction

Phi Beta Kappa are the initials of a Greek phrase: philosophia biou kybernetes, “Philosophy, the pilot of life.” Philosophia is clear; biou is as in biology, the science of life; and kybernetes just lets you recognize the related word “governor.”

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We live in a democracy that is generally said to be characterized by two ideals: liberty and equality. These watchwords peculiarly define American democracy. Its … [ Read more ]

Author: Eva T. H. Brann
Source: The Key Reporter (Summer1993)
Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy

How America Chose Not to Hold the Powerful to Account

One way to look at the rise of Donald Trump is as part of a decades-long backlash among the American leadership class to the idea of accountability. Since Richard Nixon was forced to resign, powerful people in both political parties have worked assiduously to ensure that their leaders would escape the consequences of their actions… This is not just about Trump; his impunity is the … [ Read more ]

Author: Adam Serwer
Source: The Atlantic (February 26, 2026)
Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy

How the Bernie Goetz Shootings Explain the Trump Era

Reagan Republicans fully understood the political risks of dismantling more than 50 years of public policy, yet—more effectively than any of their predecessors—they succeeded in manufacturing the popular consent needed to do precisely that. The key to this achievement was a simple but devastating insight: The most effective way to discredit liberal social policy was to starve it of resources and then point to its … [ Read more ]

Author: Heather Ann Thompson
Source: The Atlantic (January2026)
Subjects: America, History, International, Politics & Public Policy

The fiction at the heart of America’s political divide

As the political scholars (and brothers) Hyrum and Verlan Lewis write, “ideologies do not define tribes, tribes define ideologies.” To the Lewises and likeminded social scientists, “progressivism” and “conservatism” don’t name enduring philosophies of government, so much as ever-shifting rationalizations for the interests of rival alliances.

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But in the Lewises’ view, the belief that all of the left and right’s disputes reflect one essential moral … [ Read more ]

Author: Eric Levitz
Source: Vox (January 12, 2026)
Subject: Politics & Public Policy

How to understand this hidden driver of the modern world

The upside to mechanical values is that they’re easy to apply. It’s very hard to agree with other people about what counts as a full life, as great art, or as a soul-nourishing vocation. But it’s easy to agree about what leads to statistically longer lifespans, more page views and engagement hours, or more money. When we turn our values mechanical, we make it easy … [ Read more ]

Author: Christopher Thi Nguyen
Source: Vox (January 13, 2026)
Subjects: Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior

The Populist Revolt Against Cognitive Elites

One of the great mysteries about the rise of populism, in both the United States and Europe, is why it has benefited the political right so much more than the left. For years, American progressives have been trying to get people worked up over rising rates of economic inequality, with the expectation that this anger could fuel greater support for the Democratic Party. Yet the … [ Read more ]

Author: Joseph Heath
Source: The Atlantic (December 15, 2025)
Subject: Politics & Public Policy

Tax breaks don’t trickle down

Trickle-down economics suggests that tax cuts for wealthy citizens energize ailing economies, as recipients of the cuts use their windfalls to hire workers. And conventional wisdom among policy makers and economists contends that the main beneficiaries of corporate tax breaks are workers, who see wages increase. 

But some research suggests that if you want to create jobs, it’s better to cut taxes for the bottom 90 … [ Read more ]

Authors: Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato, Owen Zidar
Source: Chicago Booth (August 30, 2016)
Subjects: Economics | Economy, Politics & Public Policy

The Short-Circuiting of the American Mind

For decades, American politics have relied on the same logic that polygraph machines do: that liars will feel some level of shame when they tell their lies, and that the shame will manifest—the quickened heartbeat, the pang of guilt—in the body. But the body politic is cheating the test with alarming ease. Some Americans believe the lies. Others refuse to. Some Americans recognize the lies’ … [ Read more ]

Author: Megan Garber
Source: The Atlantic (April 29, 2025)
Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy

The LA protests reveal what actually unites the Trump right

Philosophically speaking, the right has long been defined by its emphasis on the value of stability — as odd as it may seem in the era of Trump’s radically destabilizing administration.

Conservative theorists, most notably Edmund Burke, have long maintained that political flourishing depends on the existence of stable social rules developed gradually and from the bottom up over the course of generations. Those who seek … [ Read more ]

Author: Zack Beauchamp
Source: Vox (June 11, 2025)
Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, International, Politics & Public Policy

The reconciliation bill is Republicans doing what they do best

The Republican Party stands for lower taxes, especially on the rich; lower spending on programs for the poor; and big spending on defense. That’s what Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, Paul Ryan, and other figures who defined the party have all stood for, for nearly half a century now… The essential Republican message may become blurred around the edges, the way that George W. Bush messed … [ Read more ]

Author: Dylan Matthews
Source: Vox (May 22, 2025)
Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy

Inconspicuous Consumption

University of Chicago economists Kerwin Kofi Charles and Erik Hurst… along with Nikolai Roussanov of the University of Pennsylvania… found… insight into the economic differences between racial groups… [that] challenges common assumptions about luxury. Conspicuous consumption, this research suggests, is not an unambiguous signal of personal affluence. It’s a sign of belonging to a relatively poor group. Visible luxury thus serves less to establish … [ Read more ]

Author: Virginia Postrel
Source: The Atlantic (July2008)
Subjects: Articles & Links, Culture, Demographics, Economics | Economy, Excerpts

Sigmund Freud’s Personality Onion

Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, used to say that most of us have a personality that looks very much like an onion: In the center you have the Id, a very simple component that all it wants is immediate gratification and self-Pleasure thus following the … Pleasure Principle. Built around the Id, there is a second entity called the Ego, which basically is a … [ Read more ]

Subjects: Psychology | Behavior, Thought Starters

First Person Plural

An evolving approach to the science of pleasure suggests that each of us contains multiple selves—all with different desires, and all fighting for control. If this is right, the pursuit of happiness becomes even trickier. Can one self bind” another self if the two want different things? Are you always better off when a Good Self wins? And should outsiders, such as employers and policy … [ Read more ]

Author: Paul Bloom
Source: The Atlantic (November2008)
Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Psychology | Behavior