is James H. Rudy Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is the author of many books, including Democracy in Dark Times (Cornell, 1998; Polirom, 2000), and co-editor of ‘Liberal Democracy in Question,’ an initiative of Public Seminar.
Any humane, responsible reaction to the 7 October Hamas terror attacks on Israel and Israelis must be directed towards de-escalation. That means avoiding inflammatory rhetoric as much as respecting civilian lives.
Is there anything democratic about ‘illiberal democracy’? The temptation to dismiss its proponents as illegitimate is clear but, as Jeffrey C. Isaac argues, it was by openly examining and addressing their claims to act for ‘the people’ that previous authoritarian political movements were successfully challenged.
