Europe Archives - Page 2 of 15

The Roots of Right-Wing Populism in Central and Eastern Europe

At the nexus of neoliberalism and the global culture wars

November 9, 2019 • by Elżbieta Korolczuk

Clearly, the tensions between what was promised in 1989 and what was delivered two decades after were one of the factors that facilitated the victories of right-wing populist parties in the region, but the connection between the two is neither straightforward nor is disillusionment with democracy unique to the post-communist ...

Feature

The Dyer’s Hand

Ann Snitow’s retirement from The New School

August 13, 2019 • by Ann Snitow

Ann Snitow gave the following talk on the occasion of her retirement from The New School on April 9, 2019. In their introduction, the two current directors of Gender Studies, Margot Bouman and Lisa Rubin, pointed out that Snitow, now emeritus, had the distinction of having founded the Gender Studies ...

Europe & Central Asia

Hungary: How Liberty Can Be Lost

Tyrannies always collapse, but whether Hungarians will escape with their sanity and sufficient clarity for a new start remains to be seen

July 23, 2019 • by Agnes Heller

As the Bible (Exodus) teaches and, more recently, Hannah Arendt warns, liberation is not yet liberty. The institutions of liberty must first be constituted, and people need to learn how to make them work while breathing spirit into them. The years 1989–1991 were a time of liberation for all the people ...

Education

How Shakespeare Helps Us Challenge the Far-Right in Europe

His works prove that migration has always been central to European society

June 19, 2019 • by Mercedes Sapuppo

Shakespeare’s England was also full of migrants, many refugees from the European wars of religion. He lived near and worked with people of many different backgrounds, and maybe this is why he asked his audience to “imagine that you see the wretched strangers, their babies at their backs and their ...

Feature

European Parliament Elections Viewed from Central and Eastern Europe

June 19, 2019 • by Veronica Anghel

While the current wave of Euroscepticism and nationalism is a challenge for the European project, this also presents the European Union (EU) with an opportunity for further consolidation: the EU now has clear cut internal “enemies.” More so than an abstract sense of purpose, enemies provide a strong incentive to ...

Feature

A Ray of Hope

Romania’s Results in the EU Elections

June 12, 2019 • by Maria Bucur

In the case I know best, Romania, the elections demonstrated a sustained and even rising commitment to the principles of rule of law, the EU as a democratic institution, and trust in the possibility of launching new political parties. It is a case worthy of attention because it offers hope ...

Feature

The People’s Vote That Ended Communism

Lessons from Poland on the role of elections

June 8, 2019 • by Jim Bjork

On June 4th, 1989, Polish voters went to the polls to elect new members to the national legislature. The election was designed to produce a managed, incremental modification of the Communist regime’s four-decade-long rule. Only a third of seats in the lower house (the Sejm) were contested, and the newly ...

Democracy

The People’s Vote That Ended Communism

Lessons from Poland on the role of elections

June 8, 2019 • by Jim Bjork

On June 4th, 1989, Polish voters went to the polls to elect new members to the national legislature. The election was designed to produce a managed, incremental modification of the Communist regime’s four-decade-long rule. Only a third of seats in the lower house (the Sejm) were contested, and the newly ...

Uncategorized

Why Freedom of Expression Is At Stake In Italy

The suspension of a teacher is sparking debate across the country

June 6, 2019 • by Valerio Alfonso Bruno

At this very moment, hundreds of Italian teachers are expressing their open dissent with this decision on social media, and writing in solidarity with the recently suspended 63-year-old teacher. My aim is not to analyze whether the comparison between Interior Minister and rightist populist League party leader Matteo Salvini and Benito Mussolini ...

Feature

#OnArrive — But Where Are We?

Unpacking the electoral performance of Europe’s nationalist right

May 31, 2019 • by Mabel Berezin

The last time citizens of European Union member states displayed enthusiasm for the European Parliamentary elections was in 1979 when turnout was 61.9 percent. 1979 was the year that the elections began and the year that the Union consisted of only nine members. In the five Parliamentary elections that have ...

Migration

Corpus Nullius: How Europe Recast the Migrant Body

Narratives of the migrant-refugee crisis reflect the interests they serve

May 23, 2019 • by Siraj Izhar

After a record number of refugees arrived in Europe in 2015 following the Syrian collapse, Europe’s reaction provided the conditions for an even more fundamental change. As the fences went up at each boundary within a previously borderless Schengen Europe -- almost as an act of self-reproach following Angela Merkel’s acceptance ...

Corpus Nullius: How Europe Recast the Migrant Body

Feature

Debt: A Lever of Dispossession

Case Studies in Resistance

May 22, 2019 • by Iolanda Fresnillo

“Debt is a cleverly managed reconquest of Africa” Thomas Sankara “In modern times, debt has become a key means of capital accumulation. Ubiquitous, it has taken on a new function, as the most general category through which exploitation is organized” Silvia Federici The 2008 crisis burst and debt rang our doorbell. Spain, together with ...