ISSUE 144 MARCH 2008

Contributors to this issue

ANDREW ADONIS is minister for schools

PHILIP BALL is a science writer

PETER BAZALGETTE is former chief creative officer of Endemol

LESLEY CHAMBERLAIN ’s most recent book is The Philosophy Steamer (Atlantic)

MARK COUSINS is the author of The Story of Film (Pavilion Books)

TERRY EAGLETON is the author of The Meaning of Life (OUP)

JOHN ELSOM is a freelance literary critic and journalist

ANNE ENRIGHT ’s novel The Gathering won the 2007 Man Booker prize

DUNCAN FALLOWELL ’s Going As Far As I Can (Profile) has just been published

JONATHAN FORD was a founding editor of financial news website Breakingviews

DAVID GOLDBLATT is a writer, broadcaster and teacher

JOHN GRAY is the author of Black Mass (Allen Lane)

AC GRAYLING ’s latest book is Towards the Light (Bloomsbury)

DAVID G GREEN is director of Civitas

ERNST HILLEBRAND is director of the Paris office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation

JOSEF JOFFE is publisher-editor of Die Zeit

MARTIN KETTLE is a Guardian columnist

MARK KITTO runs a caféé near Shanghai

SAM KNIGHT is a freelance writer

MARK LEONARD is the author of What Does China Think? (4th Estate)

BEN LEWIS presents BBC4’s Art Safari

FIONA MACTAGGART is MP for Slough

JULIA O’CONNELL DAVIDSON is author of Children in the Global Sex Trade (Polity)

ADAM PHILLIPS is a psychoanalyst and writer

TREVOR PHILLIPS is chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission

ROBERT REICH is professor of public policy at UC Berkeley

ALEX RENTON is writing a book about the rise of the food industry

SIMON RETALLACK is associate director and head of climate change at the IPPR

RICHARD SENNETT is a professor of sociology at the LSE

IAN STEWART is the author of Why Beauty Is Truth: The History of Symmetry (Basic)

GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT is the author of Le Tour (Pocket)

JONATHAN WOLFF is professor of philosophy at University College London

contents

Coverstory 26China’s new intelligentsia Despite the global interest in the rise of China,no one is paying much attention to its ideas and who produces them. Yet China has a surprisingly lively intellectual class whose ideas may prove a serious challenge to western liberal hegemony,says Mark Leonard

Opinions

12Healing postponed Obama may actually put back the arrival of a post-racial America. TREVOR PHILLIPS

13Idealism, not leftism Obama is no leftist, but he is inspirational. ROBERT REICH

15Theatre’s left-wing blimps Britain has changed a lot since the 1960s, but you wouldn’t guess it from our theatre. JOHN ELSOM

16Faith in the law It’s difficult to see how sharia councils could be integrated into the legal system. DAVID G GREEN

17The Russian tradition Russia has a deep historic ambivalence towards liberalism. LESLEY CHAMBERLAIN

17I’m a non-dom: help me stay Middle-class foreigners will be hardest hit by the attack on non-doms. RICHARD SENNETT

Debate

20Should paying for sex be banned? Sweden has passed a law making it illegal to pay for sex. Some think a similar move in Britain would be the best solution to trafficking. Would it? FIONA MACTAGGART VSJULIA O’CONNELL DAVIDSON

Essays

36Crime and punishment Britain is locking up more people than ever—a policy that some say accounts for the falling crime rate. But are we imprisoning so many people because we have to, or because we want to? JONATHAN WOLFF

42Europe’s failing left The European centre-left’s electorally successful technocratic reform project of the 1990s now seems to have run its course. So now what? ERNST HILLEBRAND

46Happiness studies There are calls for happiness to be taught in schools. But there is no formula for happiness, and attempts to teach it may conflict with other things schools want to instil in children. ADAM PHILLIPS

50A perfect financial storm The government is under attack for being too soft on the “super-rich.”Robert Peston’s new book describes the excesses of private equity and City bonuses. But can these be reined in without damaging a vital industry? JONATHAN FORD

Witness

56Everyone needs standards Few people give much thought to standards, yet from the GSM mobile phone system to the ISBN code they are the engine of globalisation. I visited Geneva, home to the world’s main standardisation body, to learn more. SAM KNIGHT

2 Prospect MARCH2008 Special report

62The greening of the south To avoid the worst effects of climate change, rich countries must find a way to pay poor ones to develop cleanly. But the scale of the transfers needed means big political battles lie ahead. SIMON RETALLACK

Columns

10Matters of taste The latitude theory ofcuisine. ALEX RENTON

23Washington watch Now for the running-mates. TUMBLER

33This sporting life Greedy, greedy Premier League. GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT

55China café é The worst winter for 50 years. MARK KITTO

60Lab report Let a thousand genomes bloom. PHILIP BALL

66Brussels diary What Bono told Barroso. MANNEKEN PIS

88Confessions Regrets, I have more than a few. DUNCAN FALLOWELL

Regulars

4Letters 6News & curiosities 8Grayling’s question AC GRAYLING 8Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 82Classifieds 86The generalist 87The list

Forthcoming

STEPHEN KOTKIN on Edward Lucas’s Russia

DAVID WILLETTS finds lessons from science for public policy

WILL HUTTON on the creative industries

PHILIP HUNTER on epigenetics The next issue of Prospect will be published on 27th March

www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

online arts & books

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Fiction

Archives Every article from every issue of Prospect .

68What you want I have mad thoughts while I’m cleaning. What if I were to be visited by the devil? ANNE ENRIGHT

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Reviews

74A new age of the train A surprisingly fascinating history of the British railways. ANDREW ADONIS

First DraftsProspect ’s editorial blog, updated daily.

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75Catastrophe, dystopia and love JG Ballard’s moving memoir is both personal and universal. JOHN GRAY

77More theory, please James Wood is a skilled critic, but How Fiction Works lacks theoretical armoury. TERRY EAGLETON

78A sporting conservative Ed Smith’s musings on sport are united by a gentle conservatism. DAVID GOLDBLATT

79The unloveable green Joschka Fischer is an awkward character yet deserves his place in German history. JOSEF JOFFE

Arts columns

71Smallscreen Can ITV pull off postmodernism? PETER BAZALGETTE

72Widescreen The greatest film collective ever.

MARK COUSINS

81Private view Conceptual art in Milton Keynes.

BEN LEWIS

85Performance notes Karajan the totalitarian.

MARTIN KETTLE

Web exclusives

KAMRAN NAZEER & MONI MOHSIN on the Pakistani elections

KATHARINE QUARMBY on the myth of the Down’s syndrome suicide bombers ANUJ CHOPRA on the Iranian election

Online archive

Revisit our past coverage of some of the topics covered in this issue.

China

WILL HUTTON & MEGHNAD DESAI debate whether the future belongs to China or not JOSHUA KURLANTZICK explains how China’s soft power rivals the US’s DEYAN SUDJIC on how the world’s architects are flocking to Beijing

Crime

JONATHAN MYERSON on the justice gap

PETER WAYNE & CAR HILLS write from behind bars

WILLIAM SKIDELSKY commits an act of vandalism

ALEX MCBRIDE ’s tales from court

Happiness

PAUL ORMEROD & HELEN JOHNS on why Richard Layard is wrong

ROBERT WRIGHT on globalisation and worldwide happiness

TOM NUTTALL reviews Richard Layard’s book on happiness

Prospect MARCH2008 3