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.
Donald Trump’s victory has sent the liberal world order into a tailspin. We are not just facing a wake-up call; this wave of authoritarian national populism with shades of protectionism has stormed the castle walls. A racist president, unpredictable and misogynist, who defends a white isolated “America”, is about to take leadership of the first […]
Can the EU recover from the Brexit shock, and what are the EU’s best options: more integration, less integration – or better integration? Brexit was indeed a shock, but we would do better to start seeing it as an opportunity. We have to live with the reality that the majority of Brits do not want […]
A popular narrative today is that low-income groups in the western world have fallen behind owing to jobs lost to new machines and to low-paid jobs overseas. Political populists like Trump or Le Pen have happily exploited this frustration with nostalgic, nationalistic and anti-free trade messages. A new study shows that this narrative has little […]
The Jungle in Calais is closed and the deal with Turkey is in place. Is the refugee crisis over? Not at all. The refugee crisis is first and foremost about refugees, not about migration to Europe at all. It became very salient once refugees or some refugees, a relatively small minority, started moving to Europe […]
How does Brexit influence the economic and political development in Ireland, in your opinion? Well, it’s a major issue for us. Britain is Ireland’s largest trading partner in the world, and Britain is Ireland’s number one food export destination. It accounts for about 40% of all our Irish food and drink exports. That includes consumer […]
Branko Milanovic, what is your diagnosis of global inequality as it stands and where do we stand in historical terms? Yes, let me start maybe with the historical terms first. Where we stand now is that since around 2000, global inequality has probably declined, and I have to say “probably” because obviously our data are […]
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s policies allowed the United States to avoid the perils of right-wing populism that plunged Europe into war in the 1930s — Europe should learn from his example It is like a cruel remake: First came globalization with its ensuing golden years; then the crash followed resulting in the crisis of confidence and […]
I will never again use the term “political correctness.” Whatever rhetorical value the term may have once had is far more than offset by what has been unleashed in the name of resistance to it since the US presidential election. I have made no secret over the years of my conviction that the sensitivities of individuals or […]
Democracy depends on a free and independent press, which is why all tyrants try to squelch it. They use seven techniques that, worryingly, President-elect Donald Trump already employs. Berate the media. Last week, Trump summoned two-dozen TV news anchors and executives to the twenty-fifth floor of Trump Tower to berate them for their reporting about […]
When Visegrad countries opposed the EU migration plan, which aimed to (re)distribute asylum seekers and refugees to Member States, many were surprised by such vocal and strong opposition. Since then, the reasons shaping the policy responses of Visegrad have come under the spotlight – lack of experience with migration, anti-Muslim sentiments, populism, nationalism and/or fear. […]
Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States raises many question marks, among them the prospect of a rise in trade barriers and unilateral economic policies. But a glimpse at recent World Trade Organization (WTO) talks reveals that, with or without Trump, the political will to revive multilateral trade negotiations remains limited. There is […]
With populism seemingly going viral in the advanced economies, the political establishment is in retreat. Outsiders are achieving significant political victories by making dramatic promises to shake up or overthrow the system. The populists’ enemies are members of the “global elite,” who have betrayed national values; and yet their revolt against what US President-elect Donald […]
