Jay Mandle

The 2007 financial crisis and the Great Recession of 2008 produced many victims. Unemployment grew, poverty increased and the availability of public services declined. But not often mentioned is the fact that the country's children too were victimized. The quality of public school education almost certainly was damaged.

Between May...

The Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision has placed the American political process ever more in the hands of rich oligarchs. It has not however done so in the way that most people expected.

Most of the discussion in the aftermath of Citizens United centered on the...

Looking at the role the Tea Party movement plays in the Republican presidential nominating process, it is hard not to be envious. In contrast to the Right's clout in the GOP, the Tea Party's progressive counterpart -- Occupy Wall Street (OWS) -- possesses almost no influence among Democrats. The right-wing...

All politicians are enigmas. We are never privy to their innermost thoughts. But what we do know is that with very few exceptions they all are seeking to be re-elected or to ascend to higher office. This is certainly the case with a would-be Democratic presidential aspirant such as Andrew...

Since the 1960s, a contradictory dynamic has been at work in the United States. The country has become socially more inclusive even as economic inequality has increased.

Ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation have receded as sources of stigma. Socially, we are more egalitarian than ever before. The reverse is true...

The Occupy Wall Street slogan that represents the movement at its best is a play on the Supreme Court's 2010 outrageous decision allowing unlimited corporate political spending. The banner that declares "This is Citizen's United" represents the Occupiers' hope for a politics of inclusiveness. It holds out the promise of...

It has been half a century since America's universities were the site of political insurgencies in support of civil rights and in opposition to the war in Vietnam. Is there any chance that the current generation of young people will lead the next great reform movement -- reducing the power...

Vote buying does exist. Campaign contributors do insist that members of Congress vote as their donors wish. But even more important than vote-buying is money's capacity to shape the political agenda. This is the power that our system of privately financed political campaigns accords to wealthy political funders. Would-be office...

The political right's victory could not be more comprehensive. It has won the battle of the budget deficit with a plan that contains only cutbacks in expenditures and raises no new tax revenue. Government will be miniaturized, just as Grover Norquist and his Americans for Tax...

The federal budget showed a surplus of $185.2 billion in 2000. By 2010 it was in deficit by $1.3 trillion. What happened? Only after that question is answered is it reasonable to discuss what we should do.

The numbers are clear: between 2000 and 2010 tax revenues declined from 21.5...

Here is a statistic that might help to place in perspective both the desperate struggle of the Japanese to regain control of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station and the equally desperate effort by the people of the Arab world to gain control of their governments. According to the International Energy...

At the 10th annual Democracy Matters National Student Summit last January, one of the issues discussed by the more than 100 student activists in attendance was the stance the United States should take with regard to democratic movements abroad. At the time, this seemed to be an interesting,...

Among political activists in the United States it has long been an article of faith that movements generally are built on identifiable self-interest. Social structures change only to the extent that groups mobilize, demanding an end to the unfair treatment, discrimination or exploitation that they experience. This is the fundamental...

Faced with myriad difficult issues, the American electorate in November turned to candidates who promised to miniaturize the size of government. This occurred despite the fact that polling data reveal that the American people believe that governmental action is required if the country's problems are to be satisfactorily resolved.

To...

A tidal wave of new political spending is upon us in the wake of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, empowering corporations and unions to use their treasuries to pay for political expenditures. According to the Campaign Finance Institute, non-party independent campaign spending on congressional elections stood at $147.5 million...

A commitment to political equality does not have to end at the United States border. Advocates of political egalitarianism can and should support those who work to achieve decision-making systems that allow and encourage equality. The real problem is not whether we should do so. The greater difficulty is to...

Change in politics does not occur without passion, and passion in turn requires a compelling vision of how things could be done differently. In this, the political Right has it all over the Left. Its vision of a minimalist government that promises personal freedom resonates deeply in American culture.

No...

The passage of health care reform, no matter how limited, was a significant accomplishment. Its adoption is testimony to the fact that even in a political system distorted by private campaign funding, progressive legislation is possible. But health care reform represented relatively low-hanging fruit compared with what else needs to...

Two recent judicial decisions are reshaping campaign financing in the United States. In combination the Supreme Court's Citizens United v. FEC and a recent Court of Appeals decision (SpeechNow.org v. FEC) have created an environment which favors contributions going to "independent" political organizations rather than to the candidates themselves. The...

In a long and important article in the February 22 issue of The Nation, Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig provides a masterful diagnosis of what is wrong with America's politics. That he does not develop a strategy strong enough to overcome our political maladies detracts only little from the value of...