The protection of human rights always involves a balance between the reasonable right to free speech and protecting vulnerable people from threatening conduct. Your rights in a nutshell. The agency charged with this responsibility is the Australian Human Rights Commission. But the commission’s relationship with both the Government and substantial sections of the public has…
The presidential election to be held shortly in France will determine, for the immediate future, whether France will remain a member of the European Union. In France, the president holds far greater executive power than corresponding leaders in the United States or Australia. The legislature to be elected in June is also deeply divided among a multiplicity of parties, such that no party is likely to win close to a majority. The first round of the presidential election will be held on Sunday, April 23, and the second round will be held a fortnight later. According to recent opinion polls,…
Turkey is holding a referendum on April 16. Eighteen proposals are being put to the people, with the aim to replace the parliamentary system with an executive presidency. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, below left, is pushing the “yes” vote hard. Erdogan wants to be dictator. He seems to have crippled the army, which is the…
THE DEMON IN DEMOCRACY: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies by Ryszard Legutko Encounter Books, NY Hardcover: 200 pages Price: AUD $34.99 Reviewed by Brian Coman In 1989, Francis Fukuyama published his famous essay entitled The End of History. Here he argued that, with the break-up of the Soviet Empire (then just beginning), the political system of liberal democracy would ultimately triumph over all others. Even those who disagreed with his thesis – and there were many – rarely disagreed with the notion that such an outcome would be highly desirable. Yet, a little over a decade earlier, one lone…
