Who Counts?
The refugee camp and its inhabitants at Piraeus Port, where Plato set the Republic, evoked a fundamental political quandary: who is included in democracy and who is left out?
Winter 2025
- Subscribe
- Magazine
- Online
- Blog
- Podcasts
- Events
- Store
- Logout
- About Us
- Donate
- Contact
- Advertise
- Newsletter
The Philanthropy Con
Charity fosters hierarchy, empowers the wealthy, and undermines democracy.
Belabored Podcast #167: L.A. Teachers Shut It Down, with Alex Caputo-Pearl
A report from the picket line.
Cuba Without the Castros
If the Cuban government focuses solely on economic reforms and limits political reform to cosmetic or ineffectual changes, it will be like cast iron: hard but brittle.
Character Limits
Olivia Laing’s novel Crudo is a tragicomic monument to our hyper-atrophied attention spans.
Right Privilege
What do American conservatives believe?
After the Pink Tide
To confront the newly powerful extreme right in Latin America, the left needs a clear-eyed understanding of its time in power.
Introducing the special section of our Winter issue.
L.A. Teachers Prepare to Strike
Here’s what’s at stake.
France’s Yellow Vests: A Test for the Populist Left
With the threat of the far-right looming, transforming the “gilets jaunes” into a viable political force that can defeat Macron, let alone neoliberalism, will be no simple task.
What Socialists Would Do in America—If They Could
“Capitalism is dying,” wrote Michael Harrington forty years ago. “It will not, however, disappear on a given day, or in a given month or even year. Its demise will take place as a historic process that could lead to democratic socialism—or to a new kind of collectivist and authoritarian society.”
Joy Amid the Ruins in 2018
A look back on the year at Dissent.
How Liberalism Failed
After decades of relative stability, Western elites forgot how precious and precarious liberal democracy really is.
Healthy Signs
The Affordable Care Act is deeply flawed, but it has nonetheless made healthcare cheaper and more accessible for millions.
The Faces of Eviction
Sociologist Matthew Desmond discusses the scope of the eviction epidemic—and how ordinary people are fighting back.
Belabored Podcast #166: Raises for Uber and Lyft Drivers, with Bhairavi Desai
Last week, New York established an important new pay floor for app-based drivers. Bhairavi Desai of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance joins us to talk about the victory.
