Education Commons^™

Democracy In Crisis, The Specter Of Authoritarianism, And The Future Of Higher Education, Henry A. Giroux

Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs

As the forces of neoliberalism gain ascendency in the United States, democratic public spheres must confront a growing crisis—one that impacts subjectivity as much as the material conditions in which most people must now struggle to survive. Politics has become an extension of war as a range of groups are now considered disposable, including immigrants, low-income and poor ethnic minority youth, the elderly, the unemployed, the homeless, and people of color. Higher education is an important sphere that has historically supported a democratic public culture by infusing students with moral and political agency, critical thinking, and public values. But higher …