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.
Paul Krugman quite rightly often complains about people he calls professional centrists, who always suggest there is a middle road between the ‘extreme’ views of Democrats or Republicans. He noted that such centrists always have to blame both sides, and would typically fail to note that although the Democrats have stayed pretty much in the […]
To understand the results of the Italian general elections, one needs look no further than the vote distribution in Milan: the Democratic Party (PD) – the nominal Left – scored good results in the city centre, one of Italy’s wealthiest districts. Meanwhile, the suburbs voted, en masse, for Lega, a racist and chauvinist party. In […]
Since 2015 international politics have sped up and changed direction. The return to power of the Law and Justice Party (PiS), led by Jaroslav Kaczynski in October 2015, the Brexit vote in June 2016 and the Trump victory in November 2016 should be seen in conjunction and taken as portents of a new political era. […]
The outcome of the negotiations for a Grand Coalition in Germany has been remarkable. For the SPD to get foreign affairs and labour is not surprising, but to gain the finance ministry is more than many could have hoped. The appointment of Olaf Scholz, Mayor of Hamburg, also might mean a new direction for Germany […]
How do social democrats change things? The traditional method has been to win elections, inhabit the state, pull the levers of the state and hey presto – social democracy. Here in the UK this approach is magnified because of our awful first past the post voting system, but most social democrats would rather not share […]
The Italian elections have confirmed the rightward shift in European politics and the further marginalisation of the left. Following events such as the Brexit referendum, the entry of a far-right party into the Austrian government and the rise of the extreme right in Germany Italy has shown how the growth of the conservative and nationalist […]
The election result in Italy, where populists and far-right parties topped the polls, following the twin disasters of Brexit in the United Kingdom and Donald Trump’s election in the United States, seems certain to harden a common liberal belief: the people brought these calamities on themselves. “Ordinary citizens,” according to this view, are so irrational […]
The general assumption was that the political and parliamentary landscape of Italy would become more complex after the 2018 elections. However, quite unexpected was the major political earthquake the vote has triggered. Clear winners are the Five Star Movement and the League. Equally, clear losers are: the Democratic Party, together with its left-wing splinter alliance […]
International Women’s Day (March 8) is the time when we celebrate and advance the rights of women and girls across the globe. A time to remind ourselves too of single parents and how they independently care for their children. And discuss the ways in which we can best support them. The large majority of single-parent […]
“What you are going to put on your political agenda is pretty much out of date,” was the comment of a trade unionist with 50 years’ experience of work in trade union policy, when I told him about the ‘Strategy for more Democracy at Work’. Well, he is right and wrong at the same time. […]
Sending a Message In Chapter 5 of the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament of the Judeo-Christian Bible, mysterious writing begins to appear on a plaster wall during a feast presided over by the Babylon king Belshazzar. When none of the king’s wise men can interpret the writing, the Jewish captive Daniel provides its […]
The post-election map of Italy has two main traits: fear and poverty. Northern and Central regions have gone to a Centre-Right-wing coalition where the leader is not anymore Forza Italia’s Silvio Berlusconi but the League’s Matteo Salvini, who dropped its previous ‘Lega Nord’ emphasis to turn it into a nationwide Le Pen-style National Front. In […]
