politics, economy and employment & labour
Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher that publishes content examining issues in politics, economy and employment & labour. This archive brings together Social Europe articles on political issues.
European Union leaders continue to play a game of brinkmanship with the Greek government. Greece has met its creditors’ demands far more than halfway. Yet Germany and Greece’s other creditors continue to demand that the country sign on to a program that has proven to be a failure, and that few economists ever thought could, […]
The fiscal rules of the European Union have undergone some much-needed improvements in recent years, but much more needs to be done. In addition to suffering from a lack of clarity on key issues, EU fiscal policy remains overly focused on short-term goals, reflected in its needless emphasis on nominal deficit targets within annual budget […]
On September 6, 1946 US Secretary of State James F. Byrnes traveled to Stuttgart to deliver his historic “Speech of Hope.” Byrnes’ address marked America’s post-war change of heart vis-à-vis Germany and gave a fallen nation a chance to imagine recovery, growth, and a return to normalcy. Seven decades later, it is my country, Greece, that needs such a […]
It is a fact that technological innovations and changes in the organization of work have caused alterations in the labour market, making certain international labour standards obsolete and, at the same time, giving rise to demands for new rights. However, this does not justify the pressure that the International Labour Organization (ILO) has been put […]
After World War I, when millions of European civilians were made refugees, forced out of their homelands by enemy occupation or deportation, an international regime was developed to coordinate effective responses and ease the suffering of those who had been uprooted. A century later, another refugee crisis is underway, and this time, it is Europe […]
The most frequent critique of first past the post (FPTP) is that by favouring the creation of stable majorities it generates unfair and unrepresentative results. FPTP distills the complexity of the electorate into much simpler outcomes. The nature of the system makes it easier for parties to ignore emerging trends that lack an institutional expression. […]
Since 2008, when the global financial crisis erupted, the European Union has been confronted by a succession of crises: the escalating Greek crisis; Russian revanchism in Ukraine; and the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean (which is inextricably linked to the regional crisis in the Middle East and Africa’s various wars). These crises have stretched the […]
Europe’s centre-left, progressive politics is in crisis, maybe in its most existential crisis since the foundation of the Social Democratic movement in the late 19th century. Currently only a small number of countries in the EU are led by a Social Democrat. Where Social Democrats are in government their poll ratings either stagnate or decline. […]
Since the beginning of 2015, two opposed events (by virtue of their underlying rationales and their protagonists) have dominated the news in Europe: the ECB’s plan to buy massive amounts of sovereign debt and the electoral victory of Syriza in Greece. On the one hand, an independent European institution emancipated from a strict reading of […]
Arguably there has to be a ‘tipping point’ – a point beyond which social and economic crises bring forth political and social movements. The situation for many young people in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece is bleak and, this is now being reflected in the rise of new social and political movements around the semi-periphery […]
A common fallacy pervades coverage by the world’s media of the negotiations between the Greek government and its creditors. The fallacy, exemplified in a recent commentary by Philip Stephens of the Financial Times, is that, “Athens is unable or unwilling – or both – to implement an economic reform program.” Once this fallacy is presented as fact, it […]
The UK general election was tumultuous and the results, particularly for Labour and the Liberal Democrats, disastrous. Of course, the position of Labour is better than that of the Liberal Democrats, but the combined fate of their decline is disheartening and disorienting for anyone on the centre- left. The surprise and shock of the outcome […]
