debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
A Blueprint for Redesigning European Democracy The renowned German philosopher and sociologist Jürgen Habermas has been one of the foremost advocates of ‘more Europe’; he also has been one of the most visible critics of the perceived ‘democracy deficit’ that has resulted from the European Union’s and the Eurozone’s ad hoc policy responses to the [...]
David Cameron’s pugnacious speech about the UK’s position within the European Union has performed a service for Europe. While the speech was greeted with much withering criticism — and for the understandable reasons that many have stated – it also gave a backhanded boost to the European project because it helps to clarify and even finalize “next steps”. Cameron’s [...]
And so, amidst much fireworks and fanfare, the curtain closes on yet another US presidential election. After well over a year of campaigning and an estimated $6 billion spent (including by SuperPacs), we ended up with the same president and roughly the same Democratic-controlled Senate and GOP-controlled House. Status quo prevailed. It looks like we can look [...]
The U.S. presidential election, which has been ongoing for over a year, is racing down the homestretch. And it looks like it will be a razor-close finish. The two leading candidates, President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney, are neck and neck in the nationwide polls and statistically tied in most swing state polls. Even [...]
With the debates over and less than two weeks to go before the November 6 election in the United States, the presidential campaigns are shifting into their final phase: persuasion of undecided voters, and mobilization of base voters. The main tool for persuasion of undecided voters is the barrage of television ads that are invading [...]
Geologists have demonstrated that an earthquake is the end-product of many minor episodes of seismic slippage along a fault line; each smaller event increases the tension until finally the whole shebang erupts. History proceeds forward in a similar seismic fashion, and recent events in Europe bear this out. In fact, September 2012 may one day [...]
Latest Polls: Obama leads Romney in key battleground states – what does it mean? Mitt Romney is now the official presidential nominee for the Republican Party, having been crowned at the GOP convention on Tuesday night along with his running mate Representative Paul Ryan. The US presidential race is heating up, as the Obama and [...]
Economists don’t know how to measure youth joblessness. One thing we have learned from the economic crisis is that we need better ways of measuring economies, at both national and global levels. The economics profession missed an $8 trillion housing bubble in the United States, as well as housing bubbles in Spain, Ireland and the [...]
The latest Y2K of Europe has passed. The Greek elections are over with no “Grexit” in sight and Europe did not fall apart. All the screaming Cassandras were wrong once again. Indeed, French president François Hollande, the leader of efforts for a new economic strategy in Europe, led his Socialist Party to a solid win [...]
This past year has been the worst of times and the best of times for China’s political development. Less than a year before China’s decennial transfer of power among its top leadership, that elite world was rattled by a disturbing episode of scandal, corruption and political murder in Chongqing, one of China’s largest and most [...]
Europeans, whether they realize it or not, have passed only the first few bends in the road of a years-long journey to overhaul their key economic and political institutions. This redesign will be more profound than the one experienced by Communist member states after the breakup of the Soviet Union; that one was a tumultuous [...]
In the United States, political strategists have an expression called the “K-I-S-S Rule,” which is short for “keep it simple, stupid.” As European leaders confront the twin challenges of erecting a United States of Europe and retaining the support of its many peoples who are naturally anxious over such a major change, the K-I-S-S Rule [...]
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