• Two Cheers for American Democracy

    The recent scenes of mob rule in Washington DC have sent shockwaves around the globe, and have been met by statements of disbelief and disapproval from world leaders. The condemnation of the insurrectionists by leading Republicans, including Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Mike Pence, and the subsequent congressional confirmation of Joe Biden’s…

  • Biden, Trump and the Lessons of the Past

    In recent weeks media commentators have dubbed the 2020 U.S. election ‘historic’. It’s understandable. The campaign was fought in the midst of a global pandemic. By election day over 9.5 million Americans had contracted COVID-19 and more than 235,000 had died. The contrasting responses of the candidates towards the epidemic, and their competing visions of…

  • And the winner is…

    We may not know yet who will win the Presidential Election but, as Edge Hill programme leader for Politics Paula Keaveney, argues, some people have “won” already. I am constantly amazed by the speed with which US commentators switch from the results of an election to the question of who will run next.  Sometimes there…