The classical German sociologist Max Weber (who has been an icon in my professional ideology) distinguished various types of authority in his theory of politics. The modern world, he proposed, is dominated by what he called “legal-rational authority”. Its typical institutional expression is bureaucracy. Those who exercise power must be able to justify why their […]

California legislators want to make it easier to fire bad teachers—and the bill even has the support of the California Teachers Association. The LA Times editorial board has the details: Under the existing system, when teachers fight an attempt to fire them, the matter goes to a review panel made up of an administrative law […]

Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim majority, but the country is also home to black magic and a community of people willing to pay warlocks and witches gobs of money to hex their enemies. Somehow, this belief in the occult is seen as compatible with Islam, but a new proposal seeks to outlaw the practice. […]

Over the past few months, California has come under fire for its use of capital appreciation bonds to fund school repairs and expansions. These exotic bonds allowed pols to pour money into schools without raising taxes. The catch was that when bills come due decades later, taxpayers will be on the hook for as much as […]

Dai Xu, a colonel in the People’s Liberation Army, made a preposterous claim on Weibo yesterday: The national leadership should not pay too much attention to it [bird flu]. Or else, it’ll be like in 2003 with SARS! At that time, America was fighting in Iraq and feared that China would take advantage of the opportunity […]

America is the leader of the global shale energy boom, and the rest of the world is racing to catch up. But countries like China and Australia are having difficulty replicating the successes of the US. Whether due to providence, dumb luck, or plain old technological prowess, the US shale revolution just isn’t easily exported. […]

If you want cheap health care, go to Utah. That’s just one takeaway from this infographic at the WSJ, which charts average health care spending across the country. Washington, DC, spends the most, at $10,349 per person, and Utah the least, at $5,031. Check out the whole graph to see the spread and how it correlates with the […]

She was, beyond a doubt, the greatest British political leader since Winston Churchill and, like him, she was cordially hated by many grandees of the party she led.The entire British establishment, from the royal family down, often wished she would just go away. In the end, a Cabinet cabal proved too much for her and […]

Is China’s economy in trouble? That’s what most outside experts on the world’s second-biggest economy will tell you. Today Fitch, the global ratings agency, endorsed that judgment.The FT reports: “Fitch on Wednesday downgraded the country’s long-term local currency rating from AA- to A+, citing a number of “underlying structural weaknesses” in the Chinese economy, including low […]

A catastrophic oil spill in Arkansas last month has breathed new life into the movement to block the Keystone Pipeline. In the wake of the destruction, environmentalist groups are arguing that the pipeline should be put on hold pending more environmental reviews, or nixed entirely. To many, the Arkansas disaster is proof that pipelines are […]