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.
The day the Troika came to town was a dark day for the Irish. Troika is a Russian word meaning a sled drawn by three horses or a dance. For the Irish people it was both a dance, but to a grating, dissonant tune, and like being pulled in three directions by the horses. The […]
The message from the Greek election must not be misunderstood. The fact that more than 36% of the country’s voters cast their ballots for Syriza, a far-left political party, does not mean that Greece has suddenly become communist. Rather, the electorate was expressing its indignation, despair, and wounded national pride. Greece’s European partners need to understand […]
Few expressions are more abused among commentators than the description of a pending meeting of European Union heads of government as “a make or break summit.” But given the Greek-Euro area turmoil and the deepening military conflict in eastern Ukraine, the European Council meeting which begins today in Brussels was always likely to be seen […]
Five years after the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis broke out in Greece, the prospect of a SYRIZA victory generated high hopes within and beyond. Its promise to seek a debt write-down for Greece and to reject/ renegotiate the policies dictated by the Troika have been seen as the first real challenge of democratic politics to […]
Will Greece default and leave the euro? On this compound-question market opinion has swung back and forth, particularly since last Wednesday’s announcement by the ECB that it would no longer accept Greek Central Bank Bonds as collateral for regular funding replenishments (although the ECB’s more expensive ELA funding window remains open). This was the ‘nuclear […]
In his Critique of Judgment, Immanuel Kant names three maxims for republican thinking to follow collectively: a) thinking for oneself; b) thinking in the manner of the other; c) always be at one with ones own thoughts. The second maxim concerns “an extended way of thinking” or justice and fairness. Right now, the German finance […]
The future of Europe now depends on something apparently impossible: Greece and Germany must strike a deal. What makes such a deal seem impossible is not the principled opposition of the two governments – Greece has demanded a debt reduction, while Germany has insisted that not a euro of debt can be written off – […]
With much fanfare, Mario Draghi announced on January 22 that the European Central Bank (ECB) would be pumping €60bn a month into the financial markets until September 2016, in what is euphemistically called “quantitative easing” (QE). This amounts to 10% of Eurozone GDP and 10% of its gross public debt. Many observers guess the flow […]
Those who think current levels of inequality are not a problem can skip this one. The Blair governments did a lot to fight poverty, but were famously relaxed about inequality, or more specifically the earnings of the 1%. For many in those governments this reflected their own views, but it also reflected a political calculation. […]
How has the European Union’s influence on the global stage changed since the turn of the century? Douglas Webber presents findings from a study of Europe’s power in seven key policy areas. He finds that on every area with the exception of regulatory policy, the EU’s power has either remained steady or declined since 2003. While some […]
The Greek elections have thrown European politics into turmoil. How do you assess the election result? The majority of Greek voters have delivered a No to crisis management through austerity which has led the country into a social catastrophe. The massive spending cuts have driven the country into the deepest recession and, at the same […]
Radical left parties rarely get a chance to rule countries. On January 25th, SYRIZA became the first ever radical left party to win elections in Greece. This is an occasion that spurs hope for progressive political change in Greece and Europe. At the same time, it is a major cause for concern. How can politicians […]
Of the many tough economic lessons from the latter part of the previous decade, the one about the unreliability of GDP size and growth rates as diagnostics of economic wellbeing has probably been the most sobering. We now know that although economies have to grow to prosper, they cannot do so at all cost, especially […]
When the euro crisis began a half-decade ago, Keynesian economists predicted that the austerity that was being imposed on Greece and the other crisis countries would fail. It would stifle growth and increase unemployment – and even fail to decrease the debt-to-GDP ratio. Others – in the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and a […]
How would you like to live in an economy where robots do everything that can be predictably programmed in advance, and almost all profits go to the robots’ owners? Meanwhile, human beings do the work that’s unpredictable – odd jobs, on-call projects, fetching and fixing, driving and delivering, tiny tasks needed at any and all hours – […]
With the rise of parties on the far-right and radical left of European party systems, social democratic parties now face a challenge to retain their support base in several European countries. Tom Angier writes that the primary problem facing social democrats is that they have shifted their appeal away from their core constituencies and the social organisations […]
If misperceptions solidify, they become a reality. This seems to be the biggest political risk of the euro crisis. As a German living abroad I am amazed about the gulf between perceptions of the European crisis in Germany and in southern Europe. If you follow the German debate, you get the impression that the irresponsible […]
Following Syriza’s victory in the Greek elections on 25 January, a number of commentators have turned their attention toward Spain, where the left-wing Podemos, which originally emerged from the Indignados protest movement, has been receiving strong polling numbers since the end of 2014. Vicente Navarro writes on the growth of Podemos and his role in shaping the […]
The prolonged economic crisis since 2008 has drastically reduced incomes and employment levels and the promised recovery will not reabsorb unemployment, particularly in Europe. Nevertheless, economic policy in Europe is sticking to past recipes based on two mainstays: fiscal austerity and labour flexibility. This strategy does increase the short-run cost competitiveness of European firms overseas […]
Jean-Claude Juncker received approval for his long-awaited investment plan at the European Council meeting on 18 December 2014, giving more details and clarifying some of the open questions on 13 January 2015. Forecasting at least €315bn additional investment over the three years 2015-2017, it was billed as the central plank in his determined effort to spend […]
He came from Algeria seeking a better life, anticipating an escape from poverty, oppression, and hopelessness. In Paris, he found a low-skill job and had children and grandchildren. As French citizens, they had the right to an education and health care. But they grew up in the ghettos that ring France’s major cities, surrounded by […]