Illiberal Democracy, CEU, and the Frog

Responding to Jeffrey C. Isaac’s Illiberal Democracy

This piece is part of the discussion generated by Jeffrey C. Isaac's piece, Illiberal Democracy.  As I was taking the escalator up in one of Budapest’s most central subway stations on a sunny July day in 2017, I counted forty-eight advertising spaces along the walls. Of the 48, forty-seven carried one ...
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Illiberal Democracy, CEU, and the Frog

Poland’s Immoral Refugee Policy

EU files lawsuit for refusing to admit refugees

On June 13, the European Commission filed a lawsuit against Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, accusing them of violating European Union law by refusing to admit refugees. The next day, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło gave a speech at the site of the Auschwitz death camp to mark the 77th anniversary ...
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Poland’s Immoral Refugee Policy

Donald Tusk’s Polish Stalker

Jacek Saryusz-Wolski Challenging Tusk for President of European Council

But then, on February 27, the Financial Times reported that the Polish government was sounding out the possibility of presenting an alternative candidate, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, an MEP from Civic Platform, the party Tusk founded. In the European Parliament, Saryusz-Wolski is a member of the European People’s Party (EPP), which he served as Vice ...
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How A Conservative Rural Country Defeated A Far-Right Presidential Candidate

The 2016 Austrian Presidential Election

On the same day, Austrians also voted in the final round of their presidential election. There, center-left candidate Alexander Van der Bellen (Green Party) defeated far-right candidate Norbert Hofer (Austrian Freedom Party, FPÖ) 53.8% to 46.2%. Austria is a small country, but the outcome of this election has international significance ...
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The Right’s Walls and the Left’s Commons

Critical reflections on the long – running clash between left and right

In a knife-edge election, many are the causes that tip the balance between victory and defeat. Politics is, as Branch Rickey memorably said of baseball, “a game of inches.” Minor changes in a campaign scenario produce major differences. Surely Donald Trump’s victory derived in no small part from his appeal ...
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The Right’s Walls and the Left’s Commons

Italian Constitutional Reform

The “Urgent” Solution to a Non-Existent Problem

“The reform of the second part of the Constitution cannot wait any longer.” This sentence from the introductory report to the “Renzi-Boschi” Constitutional Bill (A.C. 2613 -- D) could sound quite odd to an American reader. In fact, the Italian Constitution, entered into force on January 1, 1948, has been ...
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Italian Constitutional Reform

The Illiberal International

Stalin, in the first decade of Soviet power, backed the idea of “socialism in one country,” meaning that, until conditions ripened, socialism was for the USSR alone. When Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declared, in July 2014, his intention to build an “illiberal democracy,” it was widely assumed that he ...

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The Illiberal International

Are EU Exit Referenda Good for Democracy?

Referenda are important instruments of democratic politics. They have been used since the late eighteenth century in various circumstances of political life, most often in relation to constitutional change or issues of self-determination. In contemporary democratic societies, there is pressure to submit contested political questions to popular vote, in order ...

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Are EU Exit Referenda Good for Democracy?

Reflections: Before and After the Brexit Referendum

A colleague shared his impromptu reflections on Brexit, both before and after the referendum last Thursday. Before Regarding Brexit, basically I think “a plague on both your houses” -- nationalists and liberals. But for now more a plague on the Tory “Leave” side, so severe is the noxious brew that’s been ...
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Reflections: Before and After the Brexit Referendum