debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
Out of all the visits to my homeland during the crisis, the trip at the end of summer of 2011 was the one that gave me the sense that Greece’s social fabric was close to tearing point. In June of that summer, the protests of thousands of Greeks outside Parliament were met with extensive repression [...]
That the disease which brought the European Union into the intensive-care ward and has kept it there since, for quite a few years, is best diagnosed as a ‘democratic deficit’ is fast turning into a commonplace. Indeed, it is taken increasingly for granted and is hardly ever seriously questioned. Some observers and analysts ascribe the [...]
This morning I was again on CNBC Squawk Box Europe discussing current European politics, especially the latest banking union proposals. Strangely, on a procedural point, I found myself in agreement with Wolfgang Schäuble even though I normally disagree with him. But there you go…
The world has seen a hundred financial crises in the past three decades. In this column, Nobelist Joe Stiglitz argues that we could have done much more to prevent this crisis and to mitigate its effects. Looking ahead, we can do much more to prevent the next one. This is a chance to revolutionise flawed [...]
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has, for many reasons, always been supportive of the European project, but primarily because this regional integration model aimed not only at economic integration but was also meant to foster social progress and full employment. We have stressed this point on many occasions over the years. The response from [...]
Since last week, a sizeable number of commentators have been arguing that UKIP’s surge just made Britain a more European place. The reasoning? Farage and Co are part of a phenomenon that exists EU-wide, apparently. You can almost hear the thought-process of the euro-enthusiasts writing this stuff. What better way to discredit the anti-EU party [...]
Conservative populism is flourishing in America as rapid change and media hysteria cultivate the politics of fear. As must now be blindingly obvious to anyone following the international news, American politics is not like Western European politics. In the United States, popular outrage does not turn rapidly into responsive public policy. Governments do not move [...]
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 [...]
Just weeks ago, the worst of the financial crisis in Europe seemed to be over. Stability seemed to be returning. But appearances proved to be deceptive. A minor problem (at least in scale) like Cyprus, when combined with an almost unbelievable degree of incompetence among the “troika” (the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and [...]
Every time we analyse European social democracy the challenge is both more daunting and more exciting. From the publication of Building the Good Society by Andrea Nahles and Jon Cruddas to Europe & the Good Society: After the Crash by Thorben Albrecht and myself everything has changed. But things have now changed again. Events in Cyprus and the struggles [...]
France and Germany held largely contradicting hopes and aspirations for Europe’s common currency. To France the key issue in establishing a European monetary union was to end monetary dependence, both from the vagaries of the U.S. dollar and from regional deutschmark hegemony, and to establish a global reserve currency that could actually stand up to [...]
Over the last decade, as the “great moderation” was transformed into the “great recession” it would not be a mistake to portray the growth process of the Turkish economy as “a gradually-deflating balloon, subject to erratic and irregular whims of the markets”. Yet, if so, the real question becomes: what is the source of this [...]
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