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Jan-Werner Mueller

Jan-Werner Mueller

50 commentaries

Jan-Werner Mueller, Professor of Politics at Princeton University, is the author, most recently, of Democracy Rules (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021; Allen Lane, 2021).

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  1. Democracies Are Not “Backsliding”
    mueller47_VLADIMIR SIMICEKAFP via Getty Images_robertfico Vladimir Simicek/AFP via Getty Images

    Democracies Are Not “Backsliding”

    Sep 27, 2023 Jan-Werner Mueller thinks the language commonly used to describe the shift toward authoritarianism is hampering solutions.

  2. The Siren Song of Climate Authoritarianism
    mueller46_DARREN HULLAFP via Getty Images_canada wildfires DARREN HULLAFP via Getty Images

    The Siren Song of Climate Authoritarianism

    Sep 14, 2023 Jan-Werner Mueller explains why messy, slow-moving democracy is still the best system for tackling global warming.

  3. Can Local Journalism Be Saved?
    mueller44_William Thomas CainGetty Images_local news philadelphia William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

    Can Local Journalism Be Saved?

    Jun 18, 2023 Jan-Werner Mueller concludes that reviving the institution will require abandoning the current focus on material resources.

  4. Seats of Power
    mueller45_Sonu MehtaHindustan Times via Getty Images_indiaparliament Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

    Seats of Power

    Jun 12, 2023 Jan-Werner Mueller surveys how the design of legislative chambers represents – and facilitates – the political regime.

  5. Can Journalists Be Activists?
    mueller43_ Mark WilsonGetty Images_journalism Mark WilsonGetty Images

    Can Journalists Be Activists?

    Apr 3, 2023 Jan-Werner Mueller thinks the traditional debate about the profession’s role in a democracy is largely missing the point.

  1. khrushcheva171_MIKHAIL METZELPOOLAFP via Getty Images_putinkim Mikhail Metzel/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

    Putin and Kim’s Cartoon Summit

    Nina L. Khrushcheva thinks that Russia's recent meeting with North Korea was intended primarily as a warning to the South.
  2. haykel18_MANDEL NGANAFP via Getty Images_mbs Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

    Saudi Arabia’s New Nationalism

    Bernard Haykel explains the reasoning behind the Kingdom's ongoing domestic- and foreign-policy transformation.
  3. wagner22_Lukas SchulzeGetty Images_pollution Lukas Schulze/Getty Images

    The Green Growth Mindset

    Gernot Wagner sees doctrinaire debates about capitalism as irrelevant or even deleterious to the decarbonization effort.
  4. mallochbrown17_GIANLUIGI GUERCIAAFP via Getty Images_africawomenpolitics Gianluigi Guercia/AFP via Getty Images

    Africa Is the Future of Multilateralism

    Mark Malloch-Brown explains why the continent should be at the forefront of efforts to bring about international reforms.
  5. op_yi2_PEDRO PARDOAFP via Getty Images_chinahousing Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

    A Chinese Bubble Long in the Making

    Yi Fuxian

    The Chinese government is very good at covering up small problems, but these often pile up into much bigger ones that can no longer be ignored. The current real-estate bubble is a case in point, casting serious doubts not just on the wisdom of past policies but also on China's long-term economic future.

    traces the long roots of the country's mounting economic and financial problems.
  6. bp industrial policy Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

    Industrial Policy Is Back

    From semiconductors to electric vehicles, governments are identifying the strategic industries of the future and intervening to support them – abandoning decades of neoliberal orthodoxy in the process. Are industrial policies the key to tackling twenty-first-century economic challenges or a recipe for market distortions and lower efficiency?

  7. fischer208_DrAfter123Getty Images_AIhuman DrAfter123/Getty Images

    Is AI a Master or Slave?

    Joschka Fischer wonders whether humanity can even hope to maintain control in an era of “mega-crisis.”
  8. haldar25_BettmannGetty Images_friedmanreagan Bettmann/Getty Images

    Laying Chicago Economics to Rest

    Antara Haldar

    From breakthroughs in behavioral economics to mounting evidence in the real world, there is good reason to think that the economic orthodoxy of the past 50 years now has one foot in the grave. The question is whether the mainstream economics profession has gotten the memo.

    looks back on 50 years of neoclassical economic orthodoxy and the damage it has wrought.
  9. delong254_ Samuel CorumGetty Images_january6riot Samuel Corum/Getty Images

    America’s Broken Civic Bargain

    J. Bradford DeLong worries that Republicans have abandoned one of the core principles that sustains a democracy over time.

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