Jean-Claude Juncker, the newly elected president of the European Commission, announced his nominated team of commissioners this week. Each represents one of the 28 members states and will take charge of…
After much controvery and some bitterness over his appointment, the confirmation of Jean-Claude Juncker’s appointment to the presidency of the European Commission makes him one of the most influential…
European integration has been an enormous success since its inception in the Treaty of Rome in 1957. For the next five decades European Union (EU) member states enjoyed unprecedented peace and prosperity…
Some 400 million eligible voters, 751 seats, 28 countries: a portrait of true democracy at work – unless they held an election and nobody came. Average voter turnout in the weekend’s European Parliament…
Rarely do local elections anywhere have such profound national resonance. In municipal elections on 30 March, France’s governing Socialist Party (PS) lost more than 150 towns and cities. The centre-right…
The rise of the Tea Party in the US and the electoral success of both nationalist populists in Europe and the Abbott government in Australia demonstrates there are many parties with positions described…
Participation is commonly viewed as the cornerstone of liberal democracy. In Europe, however, the decades since the 1980s have been marked by falling participation and increased disillusionment with institutional…
On 18 November 2013, the Italian right-wing leader Silvio Berlusconi dissolved his party, Popolo della Libertà (PDL –- People of Freedom), the founding of which he had announced to his supporters in Milan…
Political commentators are beginning to tire of saying that things can’t get any worse for French Socialist president François Hollande and his government. And yet, catastrophe after catastrophe, things…
Marco Morosini, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
In the midst of its worst depression since 1861, Italy appears to be witnessing the collapse of another government - the 62nd in 68 years. Add ungovernability to economic depression, and Italy is becoming…
When the term “factor” is used in the description of political power, one is reminded of sunscreen or perfume: an ingredient to ingest. One is certainly not reminded of German chancellor Angela Merkel…
Along with their sister parties in New Zealand, Germany, Austria and Luxembourg, the Australian Greens are among a small group of Green parties that have won more than 10% vote share at recent elections…