Articles

A new type of political ecology may lend the Left a broad political platform. But we must first acknowledge wills that are not human. Jonathan Metzger explains why “more-than-humanism” calls for a complete rethink in policy, planning and the law.

Is the return of Serbian nationalism to be dismissed as domestic political point-scoring in an election year, or does it pose a deeper threat to the region? And will Russia step in as the rift with the EU over Kosovo deepens? Slavenka Drakulic considers the possibilities.

Salman Rushdie had to back out of attending the 2012 Jaipur Literature Festival because of an assassination threat against him. The lack of support for Rushdie shows that the defence of free speech is no longer seen as an irrevocable duty, writes Kenan Malik.

Democracy, humanism and diversity have little to do with a “European inheritance”. Yet EU cultural policy instrumentalizes cultural heritage to promote common identity. This narrative bias needs to be challenged, says Erik Hammar.

In a “New Year’s appeal”, thirteen intellectuals and public figures who opposed Hungary’s communist regime in the 1970s outline their concerns about Hungary’s new constitution and call on Europe to help halt a slide towards a new dictatorship.

Hungary’s new constitution contradicts European democratic standards on numerous counts. It allows the current government to set in stone its economic and social policy; it excludes other nationalities living within Hungary while entitling “ethnic” Hungarians beyond its borders; and, most starkly anti-democratically, it undermines the independence of regulatory institutions ranging from the national bank to the constitutional court and media.

Abortion is still illegal in a number of EU countries and LGBT people are publicly harassed. The conservatives of Europe favour policies that limit sexual and reproductive freedom. What are progressives doing about this?

Ireland, like other small EU member-states, must be especially smart in responding to the euro crisis, since it does not command the resources that better enable larger states to protect their interests. How coherent has the Irish approach been so far and are the alternatives more convincing?

The euro will be brought down by a European Tea Party-type movement of well-off northerners unwilling to pay for indebted countries, predicts Björn Elmbrant. But the EU has a role to play beyond the euro. Instead of a neoliberal politics of austerity we need a Marshall plan for Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Religion isn’t the most important factor in the Republican primaries, but it’s always there. Abby Ohlheiser explains the religious calculus in Republican politics and why the “Mormon question” might turn out to be Mitt Romney’s undoing.

The causes for the discontent fuelling the Arab revolutions are to be found in a western politics of divide and rule over the past century, argues Gérard Khoury. Will democratically elected Arab leaders make a break with the practices of their predecessors, or will new repressive regimes emerge sustained by western complicity?

The G1000 was a citizens’ summit held in Brussels on 11 November 2011, based on the idea that Belgium’s recent political crisis was not only a national crisis, but a wider crisis for democracy. A participant describes the proceedings.

After the massacre on Utøya on 22 July 2011, Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg assumed the role as “comforter of the nation”, a response typically Scandinavian in its implication of a quasi-paternal relationship between prime minister and population. Writing in ‘Samtiden’, Stoltenberg describes the thinking behind the wording of his statements and sees in their overwhelmingly positive reception a “renaissance of the public address”.

While discrepancies between EU member states can be overlooked during win-win periods of growth, recession triggers xenophobic and anti-European reactions in both rich and poor countries. In interview with Nikola Tietze and Ulrich Bielefeld for Mittelweg 36, Ulrich Beck explains how inequality leaves the Union susceptible to decay. Building on the sense of a common European destiny engendered by the crisis, how can Europe be communicated as an opportunity for more power rather than a threat to national sovereignty?

Misdirected EU aid has strengthened rent-seeking elements in the Greek economy and fostered political clientelism, writes Iannis Carras. Instead of learning from mistakes, current EU/IMF policy favours construction and privatization of state land, enabled through a legal sleight of hand. Quite apart from the environmental risks, this is counterproductive in economic terms.