debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
What do fictional portrayals of political issues say about the views within a society? Steven Fielding notes that while political fiction is an important part of British culture, portrayals of Europe and the issue of European integration are rare. Where the European issue is mentioned, it tends to be connected to corruption, or dystopian visions of the [...]
In 2009 Jon Cruddas and Andrea Nahles published a short pamphlet, Building the Good Society and with the support of Compass and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation it has been debated across Europe. A study by Goettingen University cites this Good Society debate as the most influential current in European Social Democracy. Three years later we [...]
“We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers,” says Neil Newhouse, a Romney pollster. A half dozen fact-checking organizations and websites have refuted Romney’s claims that Obama removed the work requirement from the welfare law and will cut Medicare benefits by $216 billion. Last Sunday’s New York Times even reported on its front page that [...]
Current debates within the European socialist movement on the way forward for the Centre-Left, often seem to be centred on the unnecessarily narrow field of “state versus market”. Much of the debate revolves around questions of the “correct ratio” of state-to-market in the provision of public goods and services, with scant attention given to the [...]
Everyone is telling us that growth is the only way out of the debt and fiscal crisis. But the one thing on which the so-called experts cannot agree is where this growth is supposed to come from. Growth rates in the affluent industrial nations have been in more or less steady decline since the 1970s; [...]
We know information technologies are broadening the channels of political participation (Obama’s election in 2008, the Arab Spring, the Spanish Indignados movement, Occupy Wall Street, etc.). What is less apparent —and I would argue even more consequential— is the fact they are restructuring the economic fabric of societies —particularly in advanced economies. The political effects [...]
Yong June, the creator and editor-in-chief of Indigo, one of the most ambitious, iconoclastic and lively periodicals dedicated to the critical scrutiny of the present-day realities and in particular to the issue of regaining the lost control over human condition, pressed me to sum up my view of the reasons for which such control has [...]
At this time of year, at graduation ceremonies in America and elsewhere, those about to leave university often hear some final words of advice before receiving their diplomas. To those interested in pursuing careers in finance – or related careers in insurance, accounting, auditing, law, or corporate management – I submit the following address: Best [...]
The official American establishment’s reaction to the Iranian youth venting briefly on the streets of Tehran their protest against fraudulent elections of June 2009 bore striking resemblance to a commercial campaign on behalf of the likes of Facebook, Google or Twitter. I suppose that some gallant investigative journalist, to whose company alas I do not [...]
There has been much talk about the crisis of social democracy and the shortcomings of the progressive agenda as the key explanation. Without disputing the priority of designing the right programme, I’d like to stress another important factor: the collapse of communities. Our societies are increasingly fragmented. Once large-scale communities make place for smaller groups [...]
We have entered an age of fear. Insecurity is once again an active ingredient of political life in Western democracies. Insecurity born of terrorism, but also, and more insidiously, fear of the uncontrollable speed of change, fear of the loss of employment, fear of losing ground to others in an increasingly unequal distribution of resources, [...]
It’s time to stop perpetuating perceived practical constraints, insists Matthias Machnig. New progress calls for political initiative, debates about the future direction of policy, and a passionate commitment. At stake here is nothing less than a more just society. The hope was that technical advances would also enable us to achieve social progress for people [...]
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