The proxy media exchange between the French president and the leader of the German Christian democrats is a sign of an emergent European public sphere. On March 4th something unusual—as far as I can recall, unprecedented—happened in European politics. The head of state of a member state of the European Union, the French president, Emmanuel […]
Politics
Social Europe posts on political issues.
What are central banks for?
The eurozone remains mired in unemployment while the European Central Bank targets only inflation. Adam Tooze begins a series of Social Europe columns by explaining the hidden history of the Fed’s more successful dual mandate. In January 2013 the US Federal Reserve made a remarkable statement. It announced that it would ramp up its monetary […]
Women under austerity—a frontal attack
Women are disproportionately dependent on public services. They can’t afford austerity and it’s time that governments recognised this. Austerity. From the left to the right, governments have only that one word on their lips. The European Parliament elections are approaching in May and there are fears everywhere that the tidal wave of extreme right-wing movements […]
Siege of Sarajevo: perpetrators of deadly attacks remain unprosecuted
Twenty-seven years since the siege of Sarajevo began, a handful of commanders have been tried, but Bosnian prosecutors have not yet filed any indictments against direct perpetrators of sniping and shelling attacks on civilians. During the three-and-a-half-year siege of Sarajevo, civilians were attacked with snipers’ bullets and artillery projectiles while buying food at markets, doing […]
Chief executives’ pay: reversing the race to the top
Eye-watering remuneration for chief executives is economically wasteful as well as socially divisive. Non-profits should pioneer compressed wage hierarchies. As Oxfam reports that the top 1 per cent of the world’s population now own more than the other 99 per cent, it’s time to think about how those at the top of the economic tree […]
Capitalism and democracy: what if we have it backwards?
It has become fashionable on the left to suggest that capitalism and democracy are now incompatible. In her latest column, Sheri Berman reviews the contrary case. For most on the left the story of the last decades goes something like this. During the postwar era the ‘primacy of politics’ was the rule: democratic governments, particularly […]
Could the dollar be in default?
The US has been able to run growing budget deficits by issuing more dollars as the reserve currency. If a polycentric world ends its indulgence, the shock to America could be great. In 1944, at the end of World War II, a new international monetary system was agreed. This system pegged currencies to the price […]
Whistleblowers directive still needs to change
An EU directive nearing completion would protect the whistleblowers at the heart of recent scandals—but only if they reported within their organisation first. The European Union’s proposal for a directive to protect whistleblowers is reaching the final stages of its legislative journey. Major changes must however be made to the directive, even at this late […]
European Parliament elections: new responses in dangerous times
The European Parliament elections could see the emergence of a large populist bloc thwarting progress for the next five years. A big mobilisation is needed to prevent that. The elections to the European Parliament in May 2019 will be like no previous European elections—possibly the most important since the first direct elections 40 years ago. […]
Time for a red shift from Germany’s ‘black zero’
For a decade there has been cross-party support in Germany for the balanced-budget rule. But in the first of a series of Social Europe columns on German economic debates, Peter Bofinger explains why the social democrats should abandon the ‘black zero’. If our children and grandchildren look back on the present day in 30 years, […]
Portugal’s ‘contraption’ government: substance beyond the rhetoric?
The pluralist-left coalition—’contraption’ to its detractors—in Portugal has changed the political discourse. Change is less evident, however, on the ground. I was in a rush, running late to where I needed to be, which on 4th October 2015 was the electoral-results party of the Portuguese Bloco de Esquerda (Left Bloc), at Lisbon’s São Jorge cinema. […]
Radical-right populists and financialisation
Italy is the only western-European government where radical-right populists are the dominant power. But now they have found the limits to it. The populist coalition in Italy, of the ‘five-stars movement’ (M5S) and the Lega, was recently the object of ironic media commentary, having produced a copy-pasted version of a decree—to rescue the Italian bank […]
