Henning Meyer
Henning Meyer is Head of the European Programme at the Global Policy Institute (London Metropolitan University) and Editor of Social Europe Journal. Henning has also written opinion editorials for newspapers such as The Guardian, Handelsblatt and DIE ZEIT.
The Eurozone’s critical Design Flaws
The problems Greece and some other eurozone countries are experiencing have highlighted a design flaw in the euro: it is ill-prepared to deal with asymmetric shocks because its balancing mechanisms, as Paul Krugman says, are inadequate. But in the case of Greece, there is also no doubt that serious fiscal irresponsibility combined with creative accounting ideas [...]
Support the Robin Hood Tax!
Today the Campaign for a 0.05% Tobin tax was launched by a series of NGOs under the label “Robin Hood Tax”. Here is what they are about:
The Robin Hood Tax campaign is a movement bringing together dozens of organisations that work to reduce poverty in the UK and overseas, and campaign to tackle climate change. [...]
Principles of a Social Democratic Internet Policy
Social democratic parties have had a difficult time adjusting to the internet age. They have severe difficulties in understanding in what way – positive and negative – online technologies penetrate people’s lives. The age structure of parties is an additional obstacle as different generations tend to use the internet differently.
When parties have dealt with online [...]
The Cleavage within Europe
One of the striking characteristics of the Good Society Debate was an often fundamentally different assessment between contributors from North, West, and Southern Europe and those coming from Central and Eastern Europe. To be very clear, we do not want to blame anybody for their views or analyses, but it is important to stress that [...]
Where now? The Future of European Social Democracy
Moving on from the analysis of social democracy’s plight, the future of social democratic politics in Europe was the focus of attention for many contributors to the Good Society Debate. Changes to the general approach of social democracy appeared necessary to some authors. Stefan Berger of Manchester University for instance stressed the need for a [...]
The Origins of the Social Democratic Crisis
Many authors took the opportunity of the Good Society Debate to discuss the origins of the social democratic crisis in Europe and two questions in particular: First, why did the economic crisis not benefit social democrats but seemed to have had the opposite effect? And second – partially related to the first question – why [...]
We want your Ideas! Where now for Social Democracy?
The Good Society Debate and the Good Society Conference provided some valuable starting points for the debate about the future of social democracy. But social democracy is not about a group of politicians, activists and academics. It is about you!
We would therefore like to invite you in this open thread to give us your views [...]
Social Europe Journal Review on Politics.co.uk
I have just come across the review of Social Europe Journal on politics.co.uk which I found quite interesting. Here is what they wrote:
There are some genuine items of interest in this blog collective – shame about the website.
This site would be a good source of commentary on European politics, and many of the articles are [...]
The Noughties – A Valediction
Tomorrow we say goodbye to the first decade of the new millennium. And the last ten years were troubled ones.
The 1990s were characterised by a captivating optimism that the new world after the Cold War would bring peace and prosperity for all. The triumphalism could not have been any more striking – remember the end [...]
On the Justification of the Iraq War – In Memory of Robin Cook
I was a big fan of Robin Cook and decided to watch again his resignation speech when Tony Blair revealed that he thought the Iraq War was justified even if there were no WMD (obviously there weren’t any). Blair seems to have completely lost touch with reality if he thinks his own “moral” believes were [...]
The Copenhagen Failure shows: There is no effective Global Politics!
In the early hours of this morning the news of the failure of the Copenhagen summit on climate change hit the news wires. I won’t repeat the individual disappointments as the papers will be full of it today. But I would like to comment on the political implications of this disaster. It shows that there [...]
Remembering Nina Fishman
With great sadness I learnt today that the historian and activist Nina Fishman died earlier this month of cancer. Nina was the driving force behind the introduction of a London chapter of Labour Movement for Europe and a series of academic conferences on “Rethinking Social Democracy” a few years ago. This very journal was conceived [...]