Our Digital Future

The last big change in telecommunications law happened in 1996, when simple cell phones barely existed. With technology exploding around us, we desperately need new rules of the road. The future of the economy is at stake. With this issue, Democracy will start asking and answering: What does smart, progressive digital policy look like? And how do we ensure growth and broad-based prosperity in the new digital economy?

• Andrei Cherny: Our Digital Future: An Introduction
• Robert Atkinson & Doug Brake: Net Gains: A Pro-Growth Digital Agenda

Are We Still Making Citizens?

Leon Botstein: Democracy requires a commitment to the public good. But for a long time now, our citizens have been taught to see themselves as only private actors.

The Coming China Crisis

Richard Vague: Rapid private-debt growth threw Japan into crisis in 1991 and did the same to the United States and Europe in 2008. China may be next.

Understanding the Gulf States

F. Gregory Gause, III: Why the monarchies of the Persian Gulf fall out and get back together—and why it matters for the region and the world.

Living Under Someone Else’s Law

Heather K. Gerken & James T. Dawson: From gay marriage to gun control, states pass laws that go against their neighbors’ preferences. But “spillovers” are an essential part of democracy.

Democratic Romanticism and Its Critics

Mark Schmitt: Everything you thought you knew about fixing American politics might be wrong.

From Pro-Choice to Pro-Coverage

Jessica Arons: For far too long, conservatives have controlled the debate over abortion funding. It’s time progressives went on offense.

Museums Can Change—Will They?

Michael O'Hare: Our great art institutions are cheating us of our artistic patrimony every day, and if they wanted to, they could stop.

How ISIS Came to Power

Robert Ford: To defeat the Islamic State, the West must understand the grievances that fuel the movement.

The Letter of the Law

Simon Lazarus: The new challenge to Obamacare is rooted in a conservative legal doctrine—“textualism”—that liberals never developed a response to. Until now.

The Way We Die Now

Diane E. Meier: Medical science can keep us alive longer than ever. But as longevity rises, we must ask deeper questions about what kind of life is worth living.

Editor’s Note

Michael Tomasky: Michael Tomasky introduces Issue #36

American Progressives and Israel, Continued

In Issue #35 of Democracy, Matt Duss wrote a provocative essay, "American Progressives and Israel," that reviewed two recent books on Israel. He argued that both the far right and far left had lost sight of an important group: Israeli liberals. We asked a wide range of commenters to respond.

Quid Pro Con

Zephyr Teachout: The Supreme Court’s narrow definition of corruption threatens not just campaign finance law, but the very idea of the public good. A response to Lee Drutman.

Liberal, Heal Thyself

Robin Marie Averbeck: Guess who opposed some of the great liberal reforms of the twentieth century? Not just conservatives, but liberals themselves. A response to Rich Yeselson.

Letters to the Editor

Democracy Readers: Letters from our readers

Last Front in the Culture War

Jack Meserve: Progressives have had great success in bringing diversity to mainstream institutions. If only they would do the same to their own.