Europe’s coal problem
The eurozone muddled through its crisis at Germany’s behest. The climate emergency is much too serious for that.
Politics
Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher driven by the core values of freedom, sustainability, and equality. These principles guide our exploration of society’s most pressing challenges. This archive page curates Social Europe articles focused on political issues, offering a rich resource for innovative thinking and informed debate.
Curbs on migration or freedom of movement—the Swiss experience
Arguments about immigration have polarised between restriction and liberalisation. But key are accompanying measures to ensure freedom of movement is associated with wage and social protection.
Why should governments give cash-handouts before providing free, quality public services to all?
Universal Basic Income without quality public services is a neoliberal paradise.
Populists, greens and the new map of European politics
In light of the gains by green parties and right-wing populists in the Euro-elections, Sheri Berman explores how the traditionally dominant parties respond to such challenges.
Welcome to GAFA land—where the winner takes it all
The Big Tech platforms have established monopolies which disempower their competitors as well as their workers. EU competition law can be used by unions seeking to bring them to heel.
How European telcos are monitoring our online activity
The security and privacy of personal data are being jeopardised as Deep Packet Inspection is deployed by internet service providers.
The Euro-elections in microcosm: Macron versus Le Pen
Marine Le Pen didn’t surge forward in France, yet Emmanuel Macron lacked a winning alternative. It was the populists versus the progressives in the Euro-elections writ small.
The free market is not the answer
Earlier this month, the leader of the youth section of the German SPD ruffled feathers with his call for an ‘attractive utopia’ as an alternative to capitalism.
It’s time to talk about democracy at work
Democracy at work has many benefits but above all it is a matter of human dignity.
Rethinking Europe—a challenge for trade unions
In our ‘Europe2025’ series, setting the agenda for the EU in the new term following the coming elections, Peter Scherrer outlines a project for rethinking Europe from a trade-union perspective.
Understanding the far-right populists: focus on their political message
Conventional wisdom is that the rise of the far-right populists is down to a popular cultural backlash. What’s really happened is they have broadened their support through a civic-nationalist narrative.
Grassroots online support and progressive political innovation
There is a widespread sense of a crisis of representation in Europe. Can a platform for crowdfunding and volunteering support political innovation?
Where are the limits of Europe?
For Branko Milanovic the limits of Europe are set by the inequality successive EU enlargements have enhanced.
The Celtic Tiger leaves Irish workers scarred
Workers in Ireland are still bearing the brunt after the Celtic Tiger’s demise—but with a modest gain against the precarisation of work.
Unequal Europe—collating the data
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a website collating the sources of data on inequality across the European Union and exploring evidence-based policy prescriptions? Now there is.
Polarisation, fragmentation—the challenge after the elections in Spain
The elections in Spain represented a modest victory for the outgoing Socialists but the rhetoric of the right recalled a much darker era.
Is the crisis of social democracy a crisis of equality?
Social democracy in Europe is struggling to come to terms with the more complex equality agenda of today—to which its Antipodean counterparts are however offering some answers.