Democracy

Bill Thompson lays into Live8 and Bob Geldof over the eBay selling controversy. Brief recap: people were selling their legally-obtained Live8 tickets on eBay. Geldof was upset, threatened boycotts, etc. eBay caved, ticket sales withdrawn. Bill rightly points out that this is a pretty illiberal thing to do. eBay’s

I’ve just been watching an interview with U2 on BBC2’s the Culture Show. When I was a callow yoof, I used to get rather tired of musicians getting all political (this was under Thatcher, so there was quite a lot of it about). Just concentrate on the music,

OnTheCommons.org has a write-up of a recent session at the Berkman Centre, discussing the lessons that evolutionary and behavioural research can teach about buillding trust and relationships online.

David, at A Fistful of Euros, comments on referendums: “I’m quite fond of representative democracy, and don’t think replicating the Swiss or Californian system would be a particularly good idea. I do however think that referendums are an occasionally vital and necessary part of democracy[…].” While I agree

There is a good article in this week’s New York Review of Books, by Alan Ryan. He’s reviewing Kwame Anthony Appiah’s The Ethics of Identity, and in the review, he writes: No doubt there are some beliefs we ought not to subscribe to without the fiercest testing,

The Power Inquiry also has a blog.

The Fabian Society have been thinking about democracy. Meg Russell, from UCL’s Constitution Unit, has written a well-received pamphlet called Must Politics Always Disappoint? (review to follow). They have also devoted six pages of their Spring Review to a series of ‘postcards from the future’ (ack!) – really a series

An interview on OhMyNews International with Dan Gillmor, who recently quit regular journalism to start a citizen journalism venture. (via Power of Many)