Archive for the ‘Governance Policy Context’ Category
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Who Will Stand Up to the Superrich?
Sunday, November 21st, 2010
November 13, 2010
During the boom years of 2002 to 2007, that top 1 percent’s pretax income increased an extraordinary 10 percent every year… in that same period, the median income for non-elderly American households went down and the poverty rate rose… ever-widening income inequality was not an inevitable by-product of the modern megacorporation, or of globalization, or of the advent of the new tech-driven economy, or of a growing education gap… Inequality is instead the result of specific policies, including tax policies… for high-rolling donors in election after election.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living, tax
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Capitalism is local
Monday, November 15th, 2010
November 14, 2010
… “business interests” cannot be what we live for. The primary purpose of life cannot be the accumulation of wealth… Still, wealth trumps penury. And, capitalism feeds, whereas socialism starves… Scope must be provided for the trial and error of individual enterprise… Free markets create conditions of plenty, in which starvation does not become an issue; socialism imposes material constraints and dysfunctions which finally necessitate “population control.”
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living
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When ideological purity goes out the window
Saturday, November 6th, 2010
Nov. 6, 2010
Almost everywhere in the Western world, divided government is the rule, and divided governments can seldom be ideologically pure… Minority governments generally do better at getting along. By virtue of their internal dynamics of compromise, they tend to be pragmatic. Ideology doesn’t rule them; political survival does… The world of politics is always complicated. It’s even more complicated in minority or coalition situations. Nostrums and ideological purity have no place in such circumstances
Tags: budget, globalization, ideology
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Reflections on the narrative of liberal
Monday, November 1st, 2010
Nov. 1, 2010
It was a historic mistake… when reformist political parties began to call themselves “Liberal” in the 19th century. They expropriated a cultural word for narrow, political purposes – and debased the only word that integrates a coherent political philosophy with a code of tolerance. Collectivist doctrine comes and goes – communism and fascism in days gone by, religious fanaticism now. Mr. Vargas Llosa proposes a simple defensive reform: Get rid of Liberals so we can unite again as liberals, democratic left and democratic right together, as champions of an integrated philosophy of freedom.
Tags: ideology
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Stop polarizing our discourse
Friday, October 22nd, 2010
October 21, 2010
Canadians are generally a moderate and tolerant people – thus the quickest way to publicly discredit a political opponent in debating an important issue is to characterize that opponent’s position as “extreme.”… No wonder Canadian voters – observing such phony debates time and time again – throw up their hands in disgust and conclude that it’s impossible to have an intelligent discussion on real health-care reform options in the political arena.
Tags: featured, ideology, participation
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Five years later, information access is still stalled
Saturday, October 9th, 2010
Oct. 09, 2010
… the number of complaints received by the federal Information Commissioner is up 17 per cent since the Conservatives came to power. Major government departments have hired outside consultants to clear the backlog of delayed files, often by asking journalists and other requesters to simply abandon their requests. The Harper government has a reputation for controlling information, but some Conservatives question whether its worth it.
Tags: ideology, rights
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Taking the socialist out of the NDP
Friday, October 8th, 2010
October 7, 2010
As the NDP prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary at a convention next June, senior staff are busy re-writing the preamble to the party’s constitution… The preamble currently states the NDP believes in the need “to modify and control the operation of the monopolistic productive and distributive organizations through economic and social planning, … where necessary [through] the principle of social ownership.” …part of a broader “overhaul” of NDP policy and beliefs… “There’s no more mention of a radical overthrowing of capitalism … Socialism is a word we don’t use,”
Tags: economy, ideology
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Are we sliding into a tyranny of good intentions?
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
October 4, 2010
“Debt, intemperance and incompetence in rearing our children are no doubt regrettable – but they are vices, and – left alone – they will soon lead to the pain that corrects. Life is a better teacher of virtue than politicians and most sensible governments in the past have left moral faults to the churches. “The point is that governments have no business telling us how to live…”
Tags: ideology, rights
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Matter. Of. Fact. If only government decisions were …
Monday, September 13th, 2010
Sep 13, 2010
Is it too much to expect my governments – supported by one of the best-educated and most-respected civil services in the world (not to mention my tax dollars) – to rely on reputable research when making major spending and policy decisions on my behalf? I don’t think so… But right now I’m wondering: What’s the point of funding such research and supporting institutes of higher learning if the knowledge they produce is repeatedly disregarded?
Tags: ideology, standard of living
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Who are you? The census helps demographers know
Sunday, August 1st, 2010
Jul 30 2010
Some Canadians might balk at being thought of purely as consumers rather than citizens… That’s how one of Canada’s most sophisticated geodemographic statistical systems, Environics Analytics PrizmC2, sorts all of us. We all fit into one of 66 neighbourhood-lifestyle clusters, based on more than 1,800 variables, all beginning with data gathered via the Census of Canada… Those segments were further broken down into 18 social groups based on the SESI [socioeconomic status], ethnicity, official language and urbanity… plus 12 “lifestages” determined by social group, age and the presence of children.
Tags: multiculturalism, standard of living
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