Timothy Mitchell: "Faced with the threats of oil depletion and catastrophic climate change, the democratic machineries that emerged to govern the age of carbon energy seem to be unable to address the processes that may end it. This article explores these multiple dimensions of carbon democracy, by examining the intersecting histories of coal, oil and democracy in the twentieth century." Fascinating.

"These critics often ignore [...] what Thatcher said in that famous [...[ quote: 'Who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families…'
"It’s that last phrase (“and there are families”) that’s crucial." "[Neoliberals] see individuals embedded in social institutions like the church or the family or schools—all institutions, it should be said, that are hierarchical and undemocratic."

David Runciman on politics, democracy, the EU, and various other topics. "Keynes readily accepted that democracies were far better at renewing themselves than the supposedly more efficient dictatorships. He just wished they wouldn’t try to do it when they were struggling to stop the world descending into chaos."

'Aaron Bady aptly captures the character of Mr Sterling's contribution when he calls it "a wonderful precis for a novel about Wikileaks; it’s fun to read, and it even bears a distinct resemblance to reality (if reality were a Bruce Sterling novel)". I would differ from Mr Bady only in calling it a "rambling, tendentious, free-associative sketch of a precis of a novel about WikiLeaks."' And there was me thinking I was the only one who thought Blast Shack longwinded and repetitive.

"The Wikileaks Cablegate scandal is the most exciting and interesting hacker scandal ever." Bruce Sterling in rambling style on Wikileaks.

"The Anonymous web protests over WikiLeaks are the internet equivalent of a mass demonstration." Reading the Atlantic piece reminded me of Stallman's opinion column in the Guardian, which is also well worth reading (assuming you haven't already).

"In this morning's post, my worldly co-blogger ... maintains "that grabbing as many diplomatic cables as you can get your hands on and making them public is not a socially worthy activity". I strongly disagree." A spirited defence of Wikileaks and the publishing of state secrets, in the Economist, of all places.

A good editorial on deliberative polls - small, jury-style groups meeting with politicians - by James Fishkin. This certainly sounds like a much better idea than raw direct democracy to me.

If you wanted to come up with an example of how democracy and "transparency" could work together to end up with something utterly dystopian, you'd have to work hard to try harder than the US system of sex offender registries, detailed in this depressing, but good, Economist article. (Of course, the UK is rapidly following it. Sigh.)

A long but worthwhile post on Britain's constitution, considering election timing, the EU, civil service, local government, the character of PMs, devolution, and finally, the prospects for codifying the constitution before a crisis.

The real threat to liberal democracy isn't Islamic militants but China and Russia, runs the argument here. There's also a good argument that democracy isn't an automatic outcome, but a happy accident based on the US having continental scale.

Interesting review of an interesting book about democracy, through the lens of economics. It's not hard to persuade me that democracy is a bit wonky, but the solution seems worryingly close to "let market forces rule" to me.

Why don't people vote at general elections? "The main political parties are widely perceived to be too similar and lacking in principle", and other findings too