Brian Levy
@brianlevy387.bsky.social
Practitioner. Researcher. Humanist. Professor of Practice, SAIS JHU 2012-24. Academic Director, Mandela School of Gov, U of Cape Town 2012-19. Governance & growth World Bank1989-2012. Now UCLA. Website & blog at http://workingwiththegrain.com
Some role reversal here, Filipe - feeling especially bleak this morning, I find the solace of some optimism in your post 😢😎😇
August 11, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Some role reversal here, Filipe - feeling especially bleak this morning, I find the solace of some optimism in your post 😢😎😇
Happily, because in times like these "hope" matters a great deal, these are BIG "ONLY"'s ...........
July 25, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Happily, because in times like these "hope" matters a great deal, these are BIG "ONLY"'s ...........
Filipe: even more than I feared a few months ago, we certainly are living under a government that acts with impunity, ignores all guardrails, and has repressive intent. But having lived for decades in a repressive, authoritarian (apartheid) state, this is not (yet) that. For now 11/26 matters.
July 25, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Filipe: even more than I feared a few months ago, we certainly are living under a government that acts with impunity, ignores all guardrails, and has repressive intent. But having lived for decades in a repressive, authoritarian (apartheid) state, this is not (yet) that. For now 11/26 matters.
And here's a link to the earlier piece, written in February. workingwiththegrain.com/2025/02/13/p...
Protecting the guardrails of America’s democracy – some lessons from South Africa
Now what? Four weeks into the Trump administration, a wrecking ball threatens to wreak havoc with millions of peoples’ lives. A sense of urgency is in the air. Indeed, we urgently need to bea…
workingwiththegrain.com
April 29, 2025 at 9:27 PM
And here's a link to the earlier piece, written in February. workingwiththegrain.com/2025/02/13/p...
Here is an 'update' I wrote yesterday to an earlier piece on Trump's rule through a South African lens. It points to a more accelerated trajectory to authoritarianism than I'd anticipated. workingwiththegrain.com/2025/04/28/1...
100 DAY UPDATE: Protecting the guardrails of democracy – some lessons from South Africa
In early February, I wrote a blog post that laid out some lessons for today’s USA’s from South Africa’s efforts to protect the guardrails of democracy. Here is a link to the piece. A hundred days …
workingwiththegrain.com
April 29, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Here is an 'update' I wrote yesterday to an earlier piece on Trump's rule through a South African lens. It points to a more accelerated trajectory to authoritarianism than I'd anticipated. workingwiththegrain.com/2025/04/28/1...
A suggested edit: ".......under a .... [wannabe]..... authoritarian regime......"
Even for the competitive authoritarian' variant, it isn't yet 'game over'........
Even for the competitive authoritarian' variant, it isn't yet 'game over'........
April 29, 2025 at 6:41 PM
A suggested edit: ".......under a .... [wannabe]..... authoritarian regime......"
Even for the competitive authoritarian' variant, it isn't yet 'game over'........
Even for the competitive authoritarian' variant, it isn't yet 'game over'........
This quote from @adamprz.bsky.social hit home: The idea that "Hitler's crimes were inconceivable... applies above all to his contemporaries. They could at most feel what the Führer & his men were capable of. It is probably in the nature of a breakdown of civilization to be difficult to imagine it"
April 23, 2025 at 5:02 PM
This quote from @adamprz.bsky.social hit home: The idea that "Hitler's crimes were inconceivable... applies above all to his contemporaries. They could at most feel what the Führer & his men were capable of. It is probably in the nature of a breakdown of civilization to be difficult to imagine it"
The tide in academia has turned. Harvard’s unequivocal stand has brought others along. The process of finding a spine is interesting - but now equivocators have a lot more to lose by being spineless than by rediscovering their principles.
April 17, 2025 at 12:21 PM
The tide in academia has turned. Harvard’s unequivocal stand has brought others along. The process of finding a spine is interesting - but now equivocators have a lot more to lose by being spineless than by rediscovering their principles.
Thanks, Duncan. Useful, but….The challenge in the USA right now is not to push back against “a” bad thing, but a zone flooded with dozens (hundreds) of bad things. A different problem for which we also urgently need ideas…..
March 27, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Thanks, Duncan. Useful, but….The challenge in the USA right now is not to push back against “a” bad thing, but a zone flooded with dozens (hundreds) of bad things. A different problem for which we also urgently need ideas…..
I cannot bring myself to read volumes 2 and 3 of Richard Evan’s magnum opus on the Third Reich, though I have just purchased volume 2.
March 21, 2025 at 2:47 AM
I cannot bring myself to read volumes 2 and 3 of Richard Evan’s magnum opus on the Third Reich, though I have just purchased volume 2.
He, & many others, are learning fast. A month ago, I'd hoped that there'd be enough missteps, & enough sand could be thrown under the wheels, to muddle through to the midterms. See below. Now it feels as if a resistance-galvanizing moment is just weeks away. workingwiththegrain.com/2025/02/13/p...
Protecting the guardrails of America’s democracy – some lessons from South Africa
Now what? Four weeks into the Trump administration, a wrecking ball threatens to wreak havoc with millions of peoples’ lives. A sense of urgency is in the air. Indeed, we urgently need to bea…
workingwiththegrain.com
March 19, 2025 at 7:37 PM
He, & many others, are learning fast. A month ago, I'd hoped that there'd be enough missteps, & enough sand could be thrown under the wheels, to muddle through to the midterms. See below. Now it feels as if a resistance-galvanizing moment is just weeks away. workingwiththegrain.com/2025/02/13/p...