100 posts
Towards a European Party System?
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Dimitri Almeida Amidst what is arguably the most severe crisis the European Union had to face in recent memory, we tend to overlook crucial dynamics in the transformation of the European polity. The sovereign debt crisis and the rising scepticism o...
ECI – the first step towards trans-European e-democracy
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Number of View: 11The European agenda has been overshadowed in recent years by the impact of the current crisis and by the need to take unprecedented measures to overcome it, many of which have often been poorly received by citizens. The solution...
EU-Call for Proposals LLP 2013: Bank Guarantees
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At the DARE GA 2011 several members indicated they have difficulties in receiving tha bank guarantees required for the applications under the Lifelong Learning Call for Proposals.The DARe board asked the European Commission in a letter for advise how...
Ukrainians Rally in Protest Over Vote-Rigging
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Online reports that have been coming in from disputed districts over the past week offer a good insight into the Ukrainian election routine and also help explain the frustration of ordinary voters.
An academicus/literati roundup: Citizenship after orientalism at Open Democracy, Good practices for university open-access policies, Open Courses and more…
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Citizenship after orientalism – an introduction from open Democracy News Analysis – by Engin Isin Introducing this week’s guest theme. Engin Isin holds a Chair in Citizenship and is Professor of Politics in Politics and Internationa...
"Citizens have the rights to..." Social welfare defending EU Citizens' lack of interest in their political sytem
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It seems as if there is not much sense in discussing the topic of Citizens' duties in times of duties. To whom ever I talk I just here: Citizens have the rights to,... Yes, citizens have the right. "Citizens have," as one person stated today during a...
An idea for a sustainable approach against projects like CleanIT or INDECT
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The Twittersphere has been humming with #CleanIT these days, after a few recent articles commented on current documents which the project and the German government released and the project group prepared for its Vienna meeting. CleanIT is a project t...
When Actions are Priceless
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As president of the Ivanov School of Leaders Alumni Association I worked on a project titled “Dreaming in color” which was one of our first activities several months after the formation of the organization. The idea was to find a …...
The EU and Europe that I want.
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It is noticeable that this blog is so called "pro-EU" or "pro-European." Does this mean that I personally support everything that comes from the current effort for European integration? Definitely not. I do not believe that the current...
Hungary’s Electoral Law May Complicate Bid for Governing Party’s Rival
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Hungary's government is bombarding its own controversial election bill with amendments, one of which targets the disqualification of its most likely challenger at the next elections in 2014.
How European Mainstream Political Parties Become Not Old-Fashioned
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Florian Hartleb Introduction Democracy in Europe is now a multilevel governance system with a sometimes opaque interdependence of policies, institutions and actors such as entrepreneurs, media and lobbyists. At the same time, society is changing, a...
Putin's Russia: back in the USSR | Editorial
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The president's crackdown will do nothing to tackle the source of his problems: a corrupt and unreformable system of governmentThere is a glaring paradox about the crackdown Vladimir Putin has launched since being elected president for a third term.
As party politics perish, people power is born
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‘Things can’t go on like this!’ say conservatives. They have a point. Governments throughout the West have outgrown their capacity. Their treasuries are empty, their voters restive. Unable to squeeze more revenue from their citizens, they have...
Russia: Cryptanalytic Vulnerabilities in the Opposition's Online Elections
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The opposition's Elections Commission accidentally leaked personal voter data to one of its most dangerous enemies, Sergei Mavrodi's MMM group. How avoidable was this mistake, and does the fact that it happened indicate more serious vulnerabilities i...
European federalists praise democracy, but do not want citizens to have a say
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Stubb: "a treaty change would probably be derailed by referenda"Alexander Stubb, Finland's Minister for European Affairs, is known as a firm believer in a federal European state. He is also a typical representative of an EU elite scared to death by d...
Greek Golden Dawn party goes international and plays on double meanings
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25 October 2012 - This blog analyses how the Greek ultra-nationalist neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn, has elaborated new strategies to gain support from Greek expatriates in North America and Australia during the past few months. In Greece, the party is...
Iceland and her crowdsourced constitution. Latest news roundup
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Crowdsourcing Iceland’s Constitution New York Times (blog) REYKJAVIK — Icelanders like to do it their way. Where else do you get to dine on minke whale and puffin and routinely address the prime minister by her first name? True to th...
The chasm at the heart of European politics
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At the start of last week I was a guest lecturer at Roskilde University, presenting about blogging and the EU. You can find the slides I used on Slideshare here. In the discussion following the presentation I was posed a question by Angela Bourne, on...
Russia: DDoS Attacks Cripple Opposition's Online Vote
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Eight hours after online voting for the Russian opposition's “Coordinating Council” began, unknown assailants launched a sustained Denial-of-Service attack against the Election Commission's website, disabling the primary voting po...
A study of the various social mobilisations and collective activities in Europe that we chose to describe as ‘subterranean politics’ reveals a general frustration with current political practices
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Mary Kaldor presents research into the new political phenomena occurring across the political spectrum, both right and left, around the world. Those who have engaged in the activities studied cite concern with the failures of democracy as the reaso...
2013 European Year of Citizens
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The Commission has proposed to make 2013 the Year of Citizens in order to raise awareness of their rights and responsibilities. Particular attention will be devoted to the right to move and reside freely in another Member State and to non-discriminat...
Unraleviling before it’s begun? UDAR shuns United Oppositition again
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Unraveling before it’s begun? The United Opposition has been trying desperately to get UDAR, as of 18th October polling ahead of them, to sign a coalition agreement of opposition forces prior to the elections. It has now officially failed to...
Stiffed: Occupy
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“It is harder to organise a political movement to help young people than old people. Young people are less susceptible to being organised and they lack the patience for the hard graft of a long political campaign. They are more likely to be seduced...
Russia: Opposition Distracted by Virtual Elections, Loses Real Elections
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In August, Global Voices reported on several activists from Russia’s protest movement running for office in local elections. They hoped it would be easier to win these small-scale contests, which took place last weekend. They were wrong, and the Co...
A Week in Revolting Europe
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This is a weekly round-up of news, comment and analysis from Revolting Europe blog, plus our selection of the best stories, photos and videos on the web. Click here...
Invisible Europe
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A rejection of capitalism; confrontation of rising xenophobia as an element in new social movements, a challenge to take local democracy back to the town square to re-find a meaningful politicalRead more…...
Merkel and Barroso's Speeches to the EPP Congress
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I haven't had the time to look at much of the European People's Party's Congress this week, but I saw the speeches of Merkel and Barroso.Angela Merkel's speech echoed some of the "strivers" rhetoric of David Cameron's speech, though EPP parties in ge...
Nobel Prize Collection
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As postscript to the award of the Nobel Prize to the EU, it's been decided that the presidents of the 3 EU institutions - Commission, European Council and Parliament - will go to collect the award in Oslo. It's not been decided who will give an accep...
Combating Radicalism in the European Union
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The resistance of radical nationalists to integration and European solidarity will further erode the ability of Europe to persevere as a prosperous and peaceful power. Without closer social, fiscal, and financial cooperation, individual European coun...
In the Absence of Political Leadership, Should Civil Society Groups Govern?
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Fall 2012 Marshall Memorial Fellow Angela Pasch, a Public Relations Executive at the Volkswagen Group in Berlin, argues that civil society organizations must be checked by accountable governments.
Russia: Candidates Drop Out of Opposition Elections
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On October 16 two high profile candidates in the opposition's Coordinating Council elections announced they are withdrawing from the campaign. Economist Irina Yasina and writer Liudmila Ulitskaya published a statement [ru] on Yasina's blog,...
The growing importance of the EU in national politics means that political union can only succeed with the public’s support
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The continuing crisis in the eurozone has strengthened calls for greater economic, fiscal and political union in the EU. But what is political union, and is it even feasible given that Europe’s citizens do not seem to favour deeper political …...
Lithuania's three opposition parties agree to hold talks on ruling majority
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Lithuania's three opposition parties – the Labor Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Order and Justice Party – agreed to set up a working group in the early hours of Monday for talks on a ruling coalition and agreed to support each...
American Volunteerism Presents a Stark Contrast with Turkey
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2012 European Marshall Memorial Fellow Asli Kandemir reflects on the prevelance of volunteering in America and its relative scarcity in Turkey.
The race for the 2014 EP Elections begins: the Convention of the EUROPEAN FEDERALIST PARTY
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THE BEGINNING OF THE 2014 ELECTION CAMPAIGN. At a time when talking about European federalism is no more a taboo, the European Federalist Party is organising its European Convention which will take place in Rome at the Hotel Dei Congressi on Novemb...
Nicosia: EESC Bureau Extraordinary Meeting and Conference on Restoring Trust and Confidence
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I took the flight out to Cyprus again last night. This morning the European Economic and Social Committee’s Bureau held a short extraordinary meeting (picture), followed by a conference on the theme of the role of civil society in restoring tr...
Half-time
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LITHUANIA’S leftwing parties are celebrating a strong result in the first round of the country’s parliamentary election. But it is not yet certain who will gain power from the conservative-led coalition of Andrius Kubilius, the first government i...
François Hollande's Poll Numbers Dropping Steadily
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Plantuon the Sound Barrier in Free Fall• François Hollande: The first person who mentions polls, I'll break his teeth...
DARE GA welcomes two new member organisations
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The DARE General Assembly accepted at DARE´s annual meeting in Rome on 8th octovber 2012 unanimously the Prague based Mulktikulturní Centrum Praha http://www.mkc.cz/en/home.html as new meber from Czech Republic. The second new member organisat...
European Congress Season
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We've just had the Party of European Socialist's Congress at the end of September, but the congresses of the other Europarties are still coming up. The European People's Party will hold their Congress this week in Bucharest on the 17th and 18th, whic...
Scholars should not just assume that populism is bad for democracy, but should instead concentrate on explaining populism’s positive and negative effects.
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With the rise of technocratic government in the wake of the eurocrisis, many now argue that populism is bad for democracy. Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser argues that this view is wrong-headed, and that there is no cross-regional research into the impac...
