Elections
Can The State Still Be Saved?
After eleven years in government, the German Social Democratic Party are now having to cope with their greatest electoral defeat in the post-war period. On the day of the election there was a feeling almost of unbelief about what was happening, not just among party members but also among many supporters. How was it possible [...]
After the European Elections: Why we need a more European Social Democracy
Measured against the hopes of a positive shift in power in favour of social democracy in the wake of the financial and economic crisis, European social democracy, even if the real balance of power has barely changed, is the loser in the European elections in 2009. Leaving aside the general tendency at European elections for [...]
Towards a Reformed Conservatism? I don’t think so.
The big political event in Britain over the last week was the launch of Phillip Blonds’ new Tory think tank ResPublica. I’ve known Phillip for a few years – since he was a humble academic in far flung Cumbria – and have watched him move at incredible speed to the centre of debate under the [...]
The very real Powers of the European Parliament
As 2009 draws to a close, a new European order is taking shape, although admittedly with a whimper rather than a bang. The Lisbon Treaty has finally staggered into life. The member state governments have chosen the first ever full time Council President and a new and more powerful High Representative for Foreign and Security [...]
Does Europe’s Social Democracy still have a Future?
Social democracy will only be able to sustain a social Europe through strengthening European democratic institutions.
German Social Democrats are lucky. Although in September they received their lowest vote in a federal election since the war– 23 per cent – things could have been worse. The result was still three percentage points more than they received [...]
Power Games on the German Left – Lafontaine, the radical Riddle
On the evening of the 30th August the ghost of Weimar walked abroad in the Saarland. The social democrats of Heiko Maas were only just over three percentage points ahead of their left-wing rivals. This was uncannily reminiscent of the last Reichstag elections to be held in the Weimar Republic in November 1932. Then the [...]
Testing the European Parliament
Europe returns from the summer vacation and a busy schedule starts in Brussels. The most important issue is the election of the President of the next Commission: who will it be and how will he be appointed?
The two questions are, of course, related. For the moment only the incumbent José Manuel Barroso is an official [...]
Britain’s Future in the European Union – Stay in warts-and-all or Leave
The elections to the European parliament are around the corner and many commentators and analysts in Britain are using this occasion to attack the European Union with rather cheap arguments. Most of these opinions seem like a deflection of national debates and ambiguities onto the European level. But they remind us about the fundamental decision the UK has to take sooner rather than later: whether to stay in the Union warts-and-all or leave altogether.
World Wide Webbed: The Obama Campaign’s masterful Use of the Internet
Just as President Barack Obama has shaken up the status quo in his first 100 days in office, his campaign overturned old formulas about how to win the presidency. The Obama campaign did not focus only on battleground states, but instead charged into states that previously had been solidly Republican turf. With a historic economic [...]
Strategy and Organising – Lessons from the Obama Campaign
Sun Tzu wrote that, ‘strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.’ Obama and his campaign internalised this maxim. They combined a political strategy that focussed on a singular narrative and open organisational structure with modern tools to maximise fundraising and voter mobilisation. The critical difference [...]
Where now for European Political Parties?
Political parties perform important roles in European societies. Parties are institutions in which citizens with similar political views organise, develop political programmes and actively participate in the political process. They are vital for democracy because parties offer the most clear-cut political choices that are put to the electorate. Parties are also recruitment organisations, through which [...]
European Parliamentary Elections 2009 – Time for a new Direction
Europe has been a fascinating idea of peace, stability and social justice. After decades of unstable balance of power systems, disastrous conflicts and two World Wars, a new era in Europe’s history began when the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was established. The idea ‘to create peace through integration’ became a reality. Following decades [...]