debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
At this point it’s probably safe to say that Hungary’s current government, led by the rightwing party Fidesz, has done more for the country’s international publicity than any other since regime transition. It’s probably not exactly what they had in mind when they decided to set up a centre to bolster Hungary’s national image, but [...]
A couple of years ago I wrote a report on the Polish elections of 2005. With characters and parties such as the (since then fortunately marginalised) extremist political loony Andrzej Lepper, the racist and homophobic League of Polish Families, and the populist Kaczynski twins taking over government, I mused in a private message how such [...]
We develop and invest significant energy in a concept such as ‘smart bombs’, but we don’t invest nearly enough resources – intellectual or otherwise – into making ‘smart government’. We tend to talk of ‘big government’ (1.5 million google hits) or ‘small government’ (0.4 million), ‘good government’ (1.5 million) and ‘bad government’ (0.2 million), but [...]
If Paul Krugman is the most influential progressive European thinker, then I think it isn’t far-fetched to say that the most powerful European progressive politician is Barack Obama (with due apologies to Zapatero). At least for a few more days, when Republicans will almost certainly take over the House of Representatives, while the Democrats’ best [...]
One of the most interesting aspects of Tony Blair’s memoirs is not his surprise about the fact that the party he used to head is still the Labour Party. It’s not even his admission that he thought Gordon Brown’s policies would be bad for the UK, and that the Tories have a better approach towards [...]
One of those sinful pleasures that some young progressives (among others) secretly indulge in is watching the chairman of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy EP group, Nigel Farage, humiliate time and again the EU’s leadership. Yes, even with all the cheap demagogy and the tasteless ad hominem attacks, Farage can be very funny. Nevertheless, [...]
Major portions of the democratic left always had mixed feelings regarding the state’s power. For the democratic left’s instinctive anti-authoritarian tendencies, the leviathan that is the modern state today should be inherently suspect. Though such doubts do flare up occasionally – especially among the liberal intelligentsia and young leftists (i.e. the non-working class segments of [...]
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