debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
Europe is in deep crisis and people are losing more and more trust. According to the EU-Eurobarometer, distrust runs at 53% in Italy, 56% in France, 59% in Germany, 69% in the UK and 72% in Spain. As the EU has lost the support of two thirds of its citizens, The Guardian recently asked: “does it [...]
The European Union owes its existence to the efforts of political elites who could count on the passive consent of their more or less indifferent populations as long as the peoples could regard the Union as also being in their economic interests, all things considered. The Union has legitimized itself in the eyes of the [...]
In order to consider where the EU will be in five years time, it is essential to reflect upon the commitments that have been taken by member states in the past. The current and future environment calls for more collective action, not less. Many people, including David Cameron, present the question of the future of [...]
The outcome of the Italian elections should send a clear message to Europe’s leaders: the austerity policies that they have pursued are being rejected by voters. The European project, as idealistic as it was, was always a top-down endeavor. But it is another matter altogether to encourage technocrats to run countries, seemingly circumventing democratic processes, [...]
Admiral Horthy may be long gone, but just lately he appears to have become all the rage in modern Hungary. Newspapers sympathetic to the governing Fidesz party continually run glowing editorials about this ‘honourable’ man, along with statues and parks being awarded his name. Despite their legacy as ‘The Alliance of Young Democrats’, some in [...]
The Fiscal Compact of December 2011 On December 9th 2011 the European Council announced a new Fiscal Compact, as part of the series of measures undertaken in order to resolve the Eurozone sovereign debt and banking crises. It was incorporated into the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance (TSCG), signed by 25 EU governments in [...]
A massive party financing scandal rocked the Partido Popular last week. El País published documents purporting to show that senior party figures, up to and including Mariano Rajoy, systematically accepted payments over a prolonged period of time from a secret party slush fund. The overwhelming documentary evidence has been met with a flat out denial [...]
A most recent study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research at the United Nations University reports that the richest 1% of adult humans alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the total world wealth. The bottom half of the [...]
In constructing Europe’s monetary union, political leaders did not think through all of the implications, which led to major design flaws. Worse, they do not appear to have learned from that experience, for they are about to take the same approach to the monetary union’s political analogue. The logic of the financial crisis is driving [...]
Paul Taggart assesses the challenge of populism to European democracy. He argues that while populism can have significant negative effects on representative politics, the demonisation of populist parties is self-defeating. Rather than tackling populism as a concept, it is important to deal substantively with the issues raised by populist politicians, such as immigration, multiculturalism and European [...]
European Leaders opt for unification, citizens do not Three years into the crisis European leaders seem to be convinced of the necessity of European unification. They consider that Europe’s dissolution would be a disaster. According to analysts of Prognos, a European think tank, the extreme scenario of an exit from the Euro of 4 countries [...]
Uncertainties about the EU’s future are undermining mainstream parties throughout Europe. In central and eastern Europe politicians can no longer sell the european model of liberal reforms when that model is itself in crisis. Although only three EU members in central and eastern Europe (CEE), Estonia, Slovakia and Slovenia, have adopted the Euro, the knock-on [...]
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