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Can democrats learn from Machiavelli?
Robert Jubb and Stuart White interview John McCormick about his 2011 book, Machiavellian Democracy, and ask what lessons can be drawn today about democratising power and embedding constitutional...
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Time for a popular solution to the perils of privatisation
Caroline Lucas has launched the Public Service Users Bill in parliament, a critical first step to ending Britain's nightmare of failed privatisation. Here's what it would empower the public to...
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The conspiratorial mindset in Europe
Scepticism is healthy for democracy, but not when it degenerates into belief in conspiracy theories. Dieudonné and Jobbik are but two recent examples that the conspiratorial mindset is alive and well...
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Yanukovych v Klitschko – round four
Negotiations between the Ukrainian Government and the Opposition have been through several rounds. The recent repeal of the hated new laws and the resignation of the government may have gone some way...
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The Tunisian arts of compromise
The biggest risk is that Tunisia’s politicians consider the past constitution-making as a painful, one-off exercise in negotiation and compromise, imposed by voting rule technicalities, rather than...
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Italy's unhappy marriage with Europe
In May, Italy will choose its European representatives, just a few weeks before starting its presidency of the EU. But for many Italians, Europe has never been so grimly distant as at the present time....
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The chaos theory of Italian politics
With four months to go before the European elections, making predictions on their results would be a tall order anywhere. More so in Italy—a country where politics often defy any notion of linearity....
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The politics of French-bashing
Bashing everything French is in fashion these days, but one would be better advised to take these attacks by the US and UK media with a pinch of salt.The Economist. All rights reserved.In the...
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A Cuban diary
WhichwayshouldCubalookforitsfuture– northorsouth? Ormightit, throughtrialanderror, findadifferentpaththatcouldhavelessonsforallofus?At a dull moment in the baseball match between Pinar del Rio and...
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GDP turns 80. Time to retire!
As GDP systematically disregards key sectors in the economy and neglects critical costs, no reasonable businessman would use it to run a company.The gross domestic product (GDP) has just turned eighty....
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UAE's political show trials
The latest trial saw 20 Egyptians and 10 Emiratis found guilty in a process marred by a litany of human rights and fair trial violations.The widening influence of security services, which act with...
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Resist government’s obsession with men in uniform
The United Kingdom’s over-reliance on policing, prosecution and punishment is socially harmful and economically wasteful. There are more just and effective ways to make us safer.After its bruising...
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Silence = death: Sarah Schulman on ACT UP, the forgotten resistance to the...
When the AIDS activist movement ACT UP was formed in New York in 1987, 50 per cent of Americans wanted people with AIDS quarantined, while 15 per cent favoured tattoos. An interview with Sarah Schulman...
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The surprising success of the Tunisian parliament
Surrounded by the pressure of Islamists and civil activists, Tunisia’s deputies have managed to achieve something unique in the Arab world: making the parliament the centrepiece of political discourse...
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South African youth complex: locating youth in a complicated youth-state...
Faced with high unemployment and widespread social ills, South Africa’s youth are ambivalent towards the state, and emerging as increasingly independent of it. What does this tell us about the present...
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Is Israel building up for an offensive against Gaza?
Gazans fear another Israeli military offensive is imminent, as Israel flexes its military muscle and Egypt joins the band, beating the drums of war.A rush to exerciseIn November 2013, the Israeli...
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#Iceland3: people who take food from bins should be applauded, not arrested
The British court case against three men who "skipped" food from Iceland supermarket has been dropped. But food waste, food banks, and corporate capitalism are the real political scandal.A spotlight...
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The deadly wages of “free trade”
As armed paramilitary groups battle for control of the ports in Buenaventura, the growing violence and internal displacement is a stark reminder of the brutal hand of paramilitary groups in Colombia...
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The Arctic disconnect
If long-term climate disruption is a reality, so is the prospect of short-term benefit for states such as Canada and Russia. But their governments' denial of climate change looks back not forward. The...
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Los mortales costos del “libre comercio”
Mientras grupos paramilitares luchan por el control de los puertos en Buenaventura, la violencia y desplazamiento internal es un fuerte recuerdo de la fuerza brutal en las manos de grupos...
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