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AUTHOR PROFILE

Bo Rothstein

Bo Rothstein

Bo Rothstein is Senior Professor of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg.

Sketch-style portrait of Albert Einstein with blue and yellow watercolour splashes.

The Middle East Conflict: What Would Albert Einstein Have Said?

Bo Rothstein

Albert Einstein’s genius for unconventional thinking offers a provocative framework for breaking today's deadly stalemate through economic compensation.

Professor reading at desk, Social Europe.

Trump’s Attacks on Academia: Is the U.S. University System Itself to Blame?

Bo Rothstein

Amid Donald Trump's hostility towards universities the question remains: how did the US leading scholars lose trust?

Collage of three views of Donald Trump's face against red and white brushstrokes.

Why Trump Keeps Winning: The Truth No One Admits

Bo Rothstein

Anger, not just inequality, drives white working-class voters—progressives must face uncomfortable truths to push back.

Illustration of Donald Trump in the foreground with Elon Musk standing behind him.

Totalitarian Democracy: How Populist Leaders Are Undermining Democracy

Bo Rothstein

Populist leaders exploit democracy to consolidate power, dismantle institutions and sideline expertise.

Socialeurope.eu — logo on red background, Social Europe.

Nobel Prize in Economics: Do Democracy and Prosperity Really Go Hand in Hand?

Bo Rothstein

This year’s Nobel laureates link democracy to economic success, but their theory ignores autocratic growth and rehashes old ideas.

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What is the ‘free’ in ‘Palestine should be free’?

Bo Rothstein

The left has often been embarrassed by association with ‘liberation’ movements which became custodians of authoritarian states.

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What works for the left? Liberal socialism

Bo Rothstein

As the European Parliament elections loom, with the populists rising, progressives need a liberal-left narrative.

Socialeurope.eu — logo on red background, Social Europe.

The idea of a liberal socialism

Bo Rothstein

Liberalism and socialism have been wrongly counterposed. Connected, they represent a hegemonic alternative.

Socialeurope.eu — logo on red background, Social Europe.

Israel-Palestine: a comparative perspective

Bo Rothstein

An enduring refugee crisis, the conflict is unlike any similar episode from World War II and its aftermath.

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Europe and the future of US democracy

Bo Rothstein

Europe needs to address the risk come 2024 of facing not only a non-democratic superpower to its east—but to its west too.

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When capital relinquishes ownership

Bo Rothstein

As the ownership of firms becomes transferred to algorithmically-controlled index funds, why not put their human employees in charge instead?

Socialeurope.eu — logo on red background, Social Europe.

What saved American democracy?

Bo Rothstein

Democracy in the United States survived the assault by Donald Trump and his supporting mob. But why it survived raises questions awkward for some.

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What to do about economic inequality?

Bo Rothstein

Economic inequality has burgeoned as income from capital has risen faster than growth. Time to change the owners of capital.

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Politics Of Fear Versus Politics Of Hope

Bo Rothstein

There are many different ways to understand the dimensions of politics. The classic right-left scale has dominated most European politics for over a hundred years

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Strange Bedfellows Undermining Liberalism: Trump And Academia

Bo Rothstein

For people like myself, working as a social science researcher, these are very strange times. Almost any colleague, in whatever discipline you talk with, will

Socialeurope.eu — logo on red background, Social Europe.

UBI: A Bad Idea For The Welfare State

Bo Rothstein

In its admittedly noble striving for increased social justice, the political left has historically had several ideas that, one might dare claim, were not particularly

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S&D Group in the European Parliament Advertisement

S&D conference The Middle East at crossroads: A progressive vision, 9 September 2026, European Parliament, Brussels

S&D conference “The Middle East at crossroads: A progressive vision”

In case you missed it, you can watch the replay of the S&D Group’s conference “The Middle East at crossroads: A progressive vision” by clicking the button below, and read the press release and opinion piece.

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Cover of the ETUI report Climate change and workers’ health: protecting workers against heat and other climate-related hazards, by Marouane Laabbas-el-Guennouni and Andreas D. Flouris.

New Report - Climate change and workers’ health

After a summer marked by repeated heatwaves across Europe, this publication tackles an increasingly urgent issue: workplace heat exposure, now one of the leading climate-related threats to workers' health. The report identifies the sectors and workers most at risk, and calls for a dedicated EU directive to strengthen and harmonise their protection.

READ HERE

Eurofound Advertisement

EurofoundTalks podcast with Mary McCaughey and Eszter Sandor: Is financial resilience and trust in Europe faltering?

Is financial resilience and trust in Europe faltering?

In this episode of Eurofound Talks, host Mary McCaughey and senior researcher Eszter Sandor unpack the results of the 2025 Living and Working in the EU e-survey. While headline inflation has stabilised at 2.1%, the data reveals a continent gripped by chronic precariousness, with 57% of respondents now at risk of depression. Mary and Eszter explore how this economic insecurity is impacting institutional trust and democratic engagement.

LISTEN HERE

FEPS Advertisement

Cover of The Progressive Post issue 31, Summer 2026: The Mediterranean, a crowded sea.

The Summer issue of The Progressive Post is out! 

The EU is belatedly awakening to a changing Mediterranean sea, where more assertive regional powers are reclaiming a role.

The new issue of the magazine also reflects on how we struggle to keep pace with AI innovations, examines the uncertainties surrounding the execution of the Pact on Migration and Asylum and the risk to human rights posed by the Return Regulation, and focuses on the EU Commission's newly proposed Industrial Accelerator Act.

READ THE MAGAZINE

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WSI blog series “Climate Transition: Socially Just and Fair”: How the climate crisis and global migration are linked, by Neva Löw and Maximilian Pichl

How the climate crisis and global migration are linked

The climate crisis and global migration are closely linked. Emancipatory forces must demand and defend the right to be able to leave, but not to have to leave. This means defending and expanding asylum rights.

READ HERE

FES Advertisement

Cover of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung analysis The Capability State: A Progressive Vision for the 21st Century by Henning Meyer.

“What is the actual purpose of the state?” – this central question is the focus of the analysis. At a time when bureaucratic processes are making life difficult for citizens, the paper proposes a three-part model. It aims at a conception of the state as a platform that helps society build the capabilities it needs to address its problems effectively.

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