SYDNEY ― James Madison famously remarked that a popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy. The present government of the People’s Republic of China has set out to disprove this rule. Rejecting talk of farce and tragedy, its rulers claim their authority is rooted within a new and higher form of popular government, a “post-democratic” way of handling power which delivers goods and services, promotes social harmony and ro

Viewpoints Feb. 16, 2012

PRINCETON ― Last year, I told a colleague that I would include Internet ethics in a course that I was teaching. She suggested that I read a recently published anthology on computer ethics ― and attached the entire volume to the email.Should I have refused to read a pirated book? Was I receiving stolen goods, as advocates of stricter laws against Internet piracy claim?If I steal someone’s book the old-fashioned way, I have the book, and the original owner no longer does. I am better off, but she

Viewpoints Feb. 15, 2012

PARIS ― No sooner did U.S. President Barack Obama welcome home American troops from Iraq and laud that country’s stability and democracy than an unprecedented wave of violence ― across Baghdad and elsewhere ― revealed the severity of Iraq’s political crisis. Is that crisis an unfortunate exception, or, rather, a symptom of the failure of Obama’s Middle East diplomacy, from Egypt to Afghanistan?Upon taking office, Obama set four objectives in the Middle East: stabilize Iraq before leaving it; wit

Viewpoints Feb. 15, 2012

PRINCETON -- Last year, I told a colleague that I would include Internet ethics in a course that I was teaching. She suggested that I read a recently published anthology on computer ethics -- and attached the entire volume to the email.Should I have refused to read a pirated book? Was I receiving stolen goods, as advocates of stricter laws against Internet piracy claim?If I steal someone’s book the old-fashioned way, I have the book, and the original owner no longer does. I am better off, but sh

Viewpoints Feb. 15, 2012

An executive in the Shanghai office of an American private-equity firm decided to conduct an experiment with two groups of MBA interns. He gave the same project to a team from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and to a team from a leading business school in China. One group of students gave a well-balanced and coherent presentation. The members of the other team took turns upstaging one another for personal glory and ended up with contradictory conclusions. No one should be su

Viewpoints Feb. 15, 2012

Once again the democratic party of South Korea, now called the Democratic United Party, is railing against the KORUS Free Trade Agreement. The DUP is promising to repeal the agreement should they gain a majority in the April elections. As an outsider observing this obsession against the agreement, I often wonder if it is simply a political tactic to appeal to their base in the countryside or if it is based on an unfortunate holdover of a more xenophobic past. I wonder whether the DUP will also d

Viewpoints Feb. 14, 2012

MADRID ― Since the publication in 1918 of the first volume of Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West, prophecies about the inexorable doom of what he called the “Faustian Civilization” have been a recurrent topic for thinkers and public intellectuals. The current crises in the United States and Europe ― the result primarily of U.S. capitalism’s inherent ethical failures, and to Europe’s dysfunction ― might be seen as lending credibility to Spengler’s view of democracy’s inadequacy, and to his

Viewpoints Feb. 10, 2012

ADDIS ABABA ― Sustainable development means achieving economic growth that is widely shared and that protects the earth’s vital resources. Our current global economy, however, is not sustainable, with more than one billion people left behind by economic progress and the earth’s environment suffering terrible damage from human activity. Sustainable development requires mobilizing new technologies that are guided by shared social values.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has rightly declared susta

Viewpoints Feb. 9, 2012

ROME ― Making my way from Milan to Rome in recent days, I experienced firsthand the rancorous process under way to deleverage Italy’s sovereign debt and impose more competitive habits on the languorous rhythms of this Mediterranean culture.Angry truckers blocked the main highways, drivers left their taxis standing, and most trains were canceled. Students scrawled “f--k austerity” slogans across peeling, ocher-colored walls. Surly shopkeepers only brightened at the sight of mid-winter gaggles of

Viewpoints Feb. 9, 2012

President Obama believes government has a vital role in creating good jobs in America. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich say American business will create good jobs here if their taxes are lowered and regulations eased.The facts are on the president’s side. U.S. corporations are increasingly global, with less and less stake in America. According to the Commerce Department, American-based global corporations added 2.4 million workers abroad in first decade of 21st century while cutting their American

Viewpoints Feb. 8, 2012