Symposium

The fundamental task of the left has always been to create the conditions that make it possible for ordinary people to live lives of decency and dignity. I believe this task is best achieved—or has a better chance of being achieved—when these same ordinary people have significant say in the decision-making processes of the basic institutions that guide and regulate their lives. I am a radical democrat or improvisational socialist—as opposed to a social democrat or left liberal—because I am convinced that the rule of capital (an interlocking network of corporate, bank, and political elites), the hegemony of white and male supremacist ideologies, the proliferation of homophobic sensibilities, and the relative weakness of ecological...