Steven Mazie
Professor of Political Studies, BHSEC-Manhattan | Supreme Court Correspondent, The Economist
Steven V. Mazie is Professor of Political Studies at Bard High School Early College-Manhattan and Supreme Court Correspondent for The Economist. He holds an A.B. in Government from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan. Mazie’s recent publications include “Up from Colorblindness: Equality, Race and the Lessons of Ricci v. DeStefano” (2011), “Rawls on Wall Street” at the New York Times (2011),“Equality, Race and Gifted Education: An Egalitarian Critique of Admission to New York City’s Specialized High Schools” (2009) and Israel’s Higher Law: Religion and Liberal Democracy in the Jewish State (2006). He has taught at the University of Michigan (1998), New York University (2001) and Bard College (2005, 2011).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau might say that Congress has become more and more unpopular as Americans have begun to appreciate its basic illegitimacy as a law-making institution.
Today at the Stone, Stephen Asma brings some post-holiday season grinchitude to bear on the concept of universal love. The call to love all the world’s citizens as oneself is […]
Depending on what you’re reading, the deal Congress finalized late Tuesday night to steer us away from the fiscal cliff represents either a “complete rout for the Democrats” or a windfall […]
At the beginning of December, I naively predicted that legislators would put an end to the fiscal game of chicken they were playing with the American economy. As the month […]
It stands to reason that conservative parents would be more inclined to propagate the Santa myth, and not only because they tend to be more religious than liberals. Deception for […]
For most Americans, the holiday week represents about half of the time off we will enjoy all year long.
Here is the story of how far the argument against marriage equality has come, and how feeble it has become, in three steps.
There is no way to understand tragedies like these in an ontological framework of the cosmos.
Now that Pope Benedict XVI has joined the Twitterverse, we will see how the pontiff wields the power of 140 characters. Early signs are only moderately encouraging. Before he started […]
Let’s say you’re just now tuning in to reports that the world will end on December 21 when the Mayan calendar resets to zero. Maybe you’re one of the 35 […]
This afternoon, the Supreme Court agreed to hear argument in two same-sex marriage cases: a challenge to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision to overturn Proposition 8 and […]
The best case against drone warfare as it is being waged lies in the fact that the campaign is being conducted in secret, shrouded from public view, unguided by any clear standards and immune from oversight.
Our leaders in Washington are playing an irresponsible game of chicken with the American economy.
By Zane Friedkin (guest blogger) The drone war being waged by the Obama administration in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia has elicited more media attention than is typical of […]
Dear Representative Boehner, Earlier this month, after President Obama was re-elected, you assured America in an interview that you are the “most reasonable, responsible person here in Washington.” No one […]
In his recent post, fellow Big Think blogger Adam Lee blames the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict on competing religious fundamentalisms. The recent renewal of fighting on the Gaza border, he writes, […]
It reads like a headline in The Onion: “Study Finds People Prefer Having Sex to Scrubbing the Toilet.”
Down in the dumps? You’d better watch your wallet, among other things.
Over at The Stone, Christy Wampole diagnoses the malaise of the post-millennial age and suggests a few ways “How to Live Without Irony.” It is a sign of Wampole’s misdiagnosis […]
It turns out that Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” gaffe in October wasn’t a gaffe at all: it was, as some observed at the time, a reflection of how the Republican […]
Last week, voters in Los Angeles County passed a referendum requiring male actors in adult films to wear condoms in scenes depicting vaginal or anal intercourse. Measure B was an […]
Now that the long presidential campaign is over and a winner has emerged, the blogosphere is asking the question we hear every four years at this time: does the president-elect […]
The Election Night spectacle on Fox News featuring an apparently unhinged Karl Rove taking on a roomful of data analyzers who had called the election for President Obama has me […]
Immanuel Kant, the 18th-century metaphysician who remains “the central figure in modern philosophy,” has wrangled up a Twitter account from the ether and this morning tweeted an endorsement in today’s […]
When you enter the voting booth on Tuesday and pull a lever or jab a touchscreen for Mitt Romney or Barack Obama, you will be registering a vote not only […]
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t give in very often. During his reign, Bloomberg has pushed for smoking bans in bars, restaurants and city parks. He has wrested control […]
Update 11/4: A few hours after I published this post, Mayor Bloomberg decided to cancel the marathon for the reason I develop below. See my analysis of Bloomberg’s surprising last-minute […]
Hurricane Sandy has introduced significant uncertainty into next Tuesday’s presidential election. But even without a natural disaster hobbling transportation and cutting off power to as many as 10 million people […]
Yesterday I argued that Hurricane Sandy may enhance President Obama’s prospects for re-election. Today, in the aftermath of the worst storm to hit the eastern seaboard of the United States […]
The massive hurricane bearing down on the eastern seaboard has disrupted both presidential campaigns. Mitt Romney cancelled trips to Virginia and New Hampshire and President Obama missed a trip to […]