Should social democracy tack towards populists wooing its electorate with xenophobic slogans? The crisis of the left demands instead a positive alternative to social insecurity. These are grim times for the left across Europe. It has been losing votes and intellectual support almost everywhere. For social-democratic parties this decline has in many cases been catastrophic—obliterated […]
Politics
Social Europe posts on political issues.
Social discontent and democracy in the EU
Europe’s citizens stand restive at a crossroads. After the May parliamentary election, democracy in the EU can take a leap forward—or the populists can reprise a dark history. Peaceful protests are legitimate, and politicians have a duty to listen and respond to them. The recent social revolts in Europe, however, have deep roots. They are […]
European Parliament elections—battle for ‘Europe’s soul’?
The European Parliament election campaign is entering full swing—a detailed analysis of the platforms of the main European party groups and what the political consequences might be for the EU over the next five years. In his speech at the December congress of the Party of European Socialists, Frans Timmermans, the current lead candidate for the […]
Democracy splutters—good governance under pressure
Amid political polarisation and declining democratic standards, can OECD and EU countries sustain the good governance challenges such as globalisation, social inequality and climate breakdown demand? Eroding standards of democracy and growing political polarisation are severely hampering the implementation of sustainable reforms. This is one of the main findings in the Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI) […]
Erdoğan’s aggression against Turkey’s Kurds—it’s personal
Turkey’s Kurds have long faced oppression by the state. But they have come to be seen by the Erdoğan regime as the main obstacle to its untrammelled power. Against the background of Turkey’s affiliation to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the European Union’s official recognition of its candidature for full membership at the Helsinki Summit […]
Jeremy Corbyn is wrong on the EU
The UK Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is wrong to believe the EU environment inimical to a radical government. He should support a second ‘Brexit’ referendum. There has been much focus in the United Kingdom on the key issues put forward by those on the right who want the UK to leave the European Union—principally their […]
The migrants genocide: the banality of democracy
The vast numbers drowning invisibly in the Mediterranean have evoked little European sympathy. Redefining this tragedy as the migrants genocide might bring a shock. In 40 years from now what we define as the ‘migration crisis’ in Europe will be reported in history books as the migrants genocide. The migrants genocide of the early XXI century unveils the […]
The loss of European memory
A commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law was Europe’s answer to fascism. The loss of this European memory presents real dangers amid a resurgent populism. The greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression (1929-1939) has produced a crisis of democratic legitimacy not unlike the one that fuelled the rise of fascism […]
Democratising Europe: by taxation or by debt?
Europe desperately needs to resolve its collective-action problem to emerge from the crisis. Democratising Europe, with a fiscal capacity, is better than monetary easing. On December 10th 2018 we launched a Manifesto for the Democratisation of Europe, along with 120 European politicians and academics. Since it was launched, the manifesto has accrued over 110,000 signatures […]
European social rights—Marshall for the 21st century
The European Union has been much more successful at ‘negative’, market-liberalising integration than ‘positive’ social measures. The concept of social rights can change that. In these days, ‘Social Europe’ is a hotly debated issue. This is a product of the diverse crises Europe has seen over the last decade—the financial crisis, the so-called refugee crisis […]
Why top rates of income tax should be much higher
The new US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has kickstarted a debate on taxation. Arguments for high income tax rates are not punitive—but they are political as well as pecuniary. When people complain that ‘neoliberalism’ is a meaningless concept, I point them to what has happened to the top rate of income tax since around 1980, not […]
Does the European Union generate external instability?
The historic achievement of peace within a Europe of universal norms is belied by the external instability engendered by violent and incoherent interventions. The European Union is justly admired for making war among its members impossible. This is no small achievement in a continent which was in a state of semi-permanent warfare for the past […]
