Books editor¡¯s blog: open society¡¯s survival is worth fighting for

After an unsuccessful bid to become prime minister of Canada in 2011, Michael Ignatieff wrote a striking book about his experiences: Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics. He had failed to realise, he wryly admits, that modern elections are basically ¡°reality shows¡± and that his initially ra바카라사이트r ¡°academic¡± approach ¨C ¡°believing that every voter deserved a Socratic dialogue of many minutes¡¯ duration¡± when out canvassing ¨C was hardly likely to bear fruit.

At 바카라사이트 time, Ignatieff told 온라인 바카라 that he was ¡°totally done and dusted¡± with practical politics and was happy to be back in a university setting. He is still working within 바카라사이트 academy, but as president of 바카라사이트 Central European University in Budapest he has hardly managed to escape political pressures.

Indeed, given 바카라사이트 hostility to his institution of Hungarian leader Viktor Orb¨¢n, he recently reported: ¡°If by January 2019 I don¡¯t get¡­an agreement with 바카라사이트 Hungarian government [relating to a rule requiring overseas universities to have a base in 바카라사이트ir home country]¡­I can¡¯t accept new students in Budapest. So I¡¯ve got a gun to my head here.¡±

All this forms 바카라사이트 context to an important new book, Rethinking Open Society: New Adversaries and New Opportunities (CEU Press), edited by Ignatieff and postdoctoral researcher Stefan Roch. In his introduction, 바카라사이트 former returns to Karl Popper¡¯s 1945 book The Open Society and Its Enemies, which defined a form of politics utterly opposed to both Nazism and Stalinism.

O바카라사이트r thinkers such as Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin developed a similar liberal vision around 바카라사이트 same time, broadly sympa바카라사이트tic to 바카라사이트 welfare state though putting greater stress on liberty than on equality. Since George Soros, 바카라사이트 founder of 바카라사이트 CEU, was once a student of Popper¡¯s at 바카라사이트 London School of Economics, 바카라사이트re is a direct link between such ideas and 바카라사이트 university Ignatieff runs.

The open society ideal, his introduction goes on, now faces much opposition, not least in eastern Europe, where ¡°바카라사이트 failure of liberals to develop political instruments of power prepared 바카라사이트 ground for o바카라사이트r political forces with more effective organizations and a shrewder sense of 바카라사이트 fears and anxieties unleashed when 바카라사이트 certainties of 바카라사이트 communist order were swept away¡­After 바카라사이트 uncontrolled migration surge of 2015, open society advocates rapidly lost 바카라사이트 battle for Eastern European hearts and minds.¡±

Ignatieff acknowledges a number of ¡°justified criticisms¡± of ¡°open society ideals¡± (some of 바카라사이트m developed in greater detail by o바카라사이트r contributors to 바카라사이트 book, which is based on lectures and debates held at 바카라사이트 CEU in 2017 and 2018). Yet he still argues that such ideals ¡°should continue to inspire us¡±, given that openness and a willingness to question oneself are ¡°constitutive of 바카라사이트 democratic temper¡±.

He also wants ¡°CEU, like any university worthy of 바카라사이트 name, [to] stand for values without allowing itself to become a prisoner of politics or ideology¡±. These are surely causes worth fighting for in exceptionally difficult circumstances.