THE OBAMA administration has unveiled the latest addition to its recovery plan: a proposed $1 trillion buyout of toxic assets. Marcellus Andrews, Mark Levinson, Jeff Madrick, and Carol O'Cleireacain debate, among other things, how Obama should have saved the banks. (Photo: Wall Street, New York, Ramy Majouji / Creative Common)

A NOVELIST, essayist, and poet, John Updike "exemplified the disappearing figure of the man of letters," writes Morris Dickstein." Considering his last poems, Nicolaus Mills adds, "How lovely to find in Updike a writer so worthy of personal admiration! How often does any writer offer us such a gift?" (Photo courtesy of Alfred A. Knopf)

WHILE THE U.S. Supreme Court has reacted slowly to the constitutional questions raised by anti-terror strategies, Germany's Federal Constitutional Court has "made itself a major player in the legal reaction to the terrorist threat," writes Ralf Poscher. (Photo: Germany's Federal Constitutional Court, Dionysos / Wikimedia Commons)

IN THE midst of recession, two of our nation's largest manufacturers--General Motors and Chrysler--are on the brink of bankruptcy and many believe we should let them fail. Economists Marcellus Andrews, Dean Baker, Susan Helper, and Jeff Madrick contemplate whether we still need manufacturing--and if so, how we can save it. (Photo: A General Motors plant, Steel City Hobbies / Creative Commons)

THE CHINESE have been struggling and sacrificing for democracy since the 1898 reform movement for a constitutional monarchy. But, writes Edward Friedman, "authoritarian China, joined by its authoritarian friends, is well on the way to defeating the global forces of democracy." (Photo: Outside the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, adapted from photo by Allen Timothy Chang / Wikimedia Commons)

AN INDEPENDENT mind, George Lichtheim was "the real thing, not the self-announced sort," writes Mitchell Cohen. "His histories of socialism and Marxism are among the most intelligent that we have....Even if you would dispute him on something or many things, you'll feel smarter for the disagreement." (Illustration: William Allen Rogers cartoon from Harper's Weekly, September 15, 1900, Scanned by Bob Burkhardt / Wikimedia Commons)

AFTER THIS winter's war in Gaza, many have argued that the two-state solution is no longer feasible. But, writes Michael Walzer, "its viability doesn't have a lot to do with the immediate strategic/political situation. There isn't any other solution....[It survives] because there's no other way to go." (Photo: Benjamin Netanyahu, Jessica Fatheree / U.S. Defense Department)

THE TURKISH model of laïcité is unique among Muslim countries. But, writes Seyla Benhabib, "the sociological firewalls that the Turkish republic tried to erect between state and religion have turned out not to be as thick as the Kemalist revolutionaries imagined." (Photo: Kemalist protest in 2007, Selahattin Sönmez / Wikimedia Commons)

RESTRAINED AND often allegorical, J.M. Coetzee's novels have come under frequent criticism for their political ambivalence. But, writes David Marcus, "Coetzee does not doubt the ability to resist evil....[He] believes that the most successful means of opposition comes through more critical methods...the slow, skeptical dissolution of power and ideas." (Photo: The reluctant anarchist: J.M. Coetzee, Bert Neinhuis / Viking)

DURING HIS eight years in office, Bush greatly expanded executive power by debilitating Congress and enacting the Patriot Act. But, argues Saskia Sassen, "This process started long before the second Bush administration and cuts across political parties. It began in the 1980s, when the current globalization phase took off." (Photo: Bush and Cheney in 2006, Eric Draper / White House / Wikimedia)

LATIN AMERICA boasts one of the strongest commodities markets in the world. But, writes Forrest D. Colburn, "Economists fear that the commodity boom undermines efforts to develop well-balanced, robust economies propelled by innovation and able to compete in the international economy." (Photo: Coppermine Chuquicamata, Chile, Reinhard Jahn / Creative Commons)

THE NINETEENTH and twentieth centuries were populated with failed visions of the good society--social theories that imposed a single interpretation of freedom and equality. But, writes Michael Walzer, "Goodness requires plenitude. That means many people participating actively in many different ways in many different groups." (Illustration: Robert Owen's New Harmony, F. Bate, London 1838)

AFTER THREE weeks of pitched debate in Congress, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. "Key steps are...in motion," writes Fred Block, "but one essential issue has yet to be engaged or discussed: changing budget procedures to facilitate a long-term increase in government investment spending." (Photo: Obama signs the ARRA, Pete Souza / White House)

THE UN Security Council is considering delaying the prosecution of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in the hope that he will be a crucial figure in the upcoming peace negotiations in Qatar. Asks Eric Reeves: "Does ending the Darfur conflict really demand that we make a ghastly choice between peace and justice?" (Photo: President al-Bashir, U.S. State Dept / Wikimedia Commons)

AFTER A decade eclipsed by the West, Russia has been eager to reemerge as a superpower. Through hard-line foreign policies and a state-sponsored youth movement, Vladimir Putin has promoted a populist nationalism in an effort to consolidate power. "More than ever before, nationalism is a political tool," writes Rafael Khachaturian. (Photo: Vladimir Putin Kremlin / Wikimedia Commons)

CHARLES TAYLOR'S A Secular Age offers an invaluable map of how the modern religious-secular divide came into being, writes Andrew Koppelman."Modern secularism [in Taylor's account] is a religious worldview, with its own narrative of testing and redemption.

AFTER SERVING on a murder-trial jury, Michael Katz, a professor of urban history, was haunted by the experience. "Converging on the histories of Manes and Monroe were deindustrialization, white flight, racial segregation and concentrated poverty...and a criminal justice system that in practice values their lives less than mine or those of my family and friends." (Photo: West Philadelphia, 2007, Axcordion / GNU / Wikimedia Commons)

WITHDRAWAL HAS it obligations, and President Obama will need to ensure Iraqi stability in the aftermath of a U.S. pullout. Dissent asked Stanley Weintraub, Stanley Karnow, Rajeev Bhargava, Fred Smoler, Todd Shepard, and Frances FitzGerald to look at past exits for lessons. (Illustration from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, November 24, 1883)

THE CURRENT economic crisis has once again pointed to the dangers of unchecked capitalist growth. But, writes Sheri Berman, "American leftists must try to...develop a program that promotes growth and social solidarity together, rather than forcing a choice between them."

THE SRI Lankan Army has ousted the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) from nearly all of the island's northern territories. But "while as a conventional fighting force the LTTE may be nearing an end," writes Sumedha Senanayake, "it is far from certain that the conflict--and the human rights infractions on both sides--is nearing a conclusion." (Photo: The Pettah neighborhood in Colombo, Sumedha Senanayake)