Politis
A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015

 
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United in grievance

By Politis Is there a global explanation for the rise of so many disparate protest movements across the globe since 2008? John Kay thinks so in his column in today’s Financial Times. “The financial crisis of 2008 wa...
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Political extremism and violence

By David Wisner Takis Michas has written about political extremism and violence in today’s Protagon. “Is there really a difference,” he asks, “between the violent tactics used or condoned by SYRIZA (riot...
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Youth and public service: satisfaction and peril

We share two poignant reminders of the lure — and challenges — of engaging young people in public service. In Afghanistan, a young American foreign service officer, Anne Smedinghoff, was the victim of a suicide car ...
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Open the doors/where are the people?

By David Wisner Growing up my friends and I used to play a small game with our hands. We would start with our hands clasped, thumbs aligned, index fingers erect. “Here is the church/here is the steeple/open the doors/wher...
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Tax paying as civic duty

By David Wisner I file my tax returns in Greece and in the US. I read this comment by Lawrence A. Zelenak in the New York Times as a welcome counterpoint to all the negative press generated throughout the Western world about t...
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Who — and where — are we?

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Right to know

By David Wisner Several months ago one of my Greek undergraduate students wanted to do a bit of research on the incidence of ministerial amendments to Greek legislation. We asked a renowned specialist, who informed us that gove...
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Gaming the election?

By David Wisner Researchers Robert Epstein and Ronald E. Robertson have prepared a paper in which they argue that an Internet search engine, not Google necessarily but  “a future Google,” might be able to manipulat...
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Wanted: the right kind of Greeks

By David Wisner A contestant in a British reality show called “The Apprentice” has indicated in an interview that there are certain types of children she will not allow her own kids to play with. For one, they need ...
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Tribalism and postpartisanship: competing visions of the state of nature?

By David Wisner These are interesting times for the analysis of European politics, from a hung Parliament in the UK, to the rise and fall of the Pirate Party in Germany, to the triumph of M5S in Italy, to the surge of Golden Da...
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Saying of the day: 2/27/13

  “What does a congressman do? He works a lot and produces little. That’s the reality.” — Tiririca (Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva), Brazilian Congress
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Ready to govern?

By David Wisner I read Guy Dinmore’s characterization in today’s Financial Times of the members of the M5S party of Beppo Grillo elected to one or the other of the houses in the Italian Parliament with a sense of w...
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Seeds of revolution

By David Wisner Anger and despair. The words do not do justice to the display of emotion I had just beheld. A lady in the flower of her years, seated in an auditorium, had just broken down into bitter tears of recrimination and...
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The cruel fact

By David Wisner I faced a small crisis the other day when one of the students whom I advise failed a course in his last semester at college. I discussed the issue and solicited from colleagues ways to resolve the student’...
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From Delacroix to Dorian Grey

By David Wisner If I were a photographer, I would take portraits of individual sitters. I would try to capture one’s eternal youthfulness, and yet simultaneously project the whole of one’s temporal experience. As I ...
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Wanted: deep thinkers

By David Wisner The title of an article in the English version of Der Spiegel got me thinking about what appears to be a systemic problem throughout Europe and the eurozone. Spiegel claims that Europe needs new blood, not so mu...
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Truth or dare 2.0?

By David Wisner Ask a young person today whether they like politics. More than half the time they will respond in the negative. Why do they dislike politics? Overwhelmingly, because politicians are corrupt and dishonest. (Now d...
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We can’t help it!

By David Wisner I often tell my politics students that people have a natural predisposition to act and think politically. What we do with this is the great challenge of contemporary citizenship and civic education. Two recent a...
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Which Greece, which Europe

By David Wisner Two public speeches this past week have turned as sharp a spotlight on the future of the EU and certain of its members states as have few events since 2009. First, the leader of Greece’s main opposition pa...
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Wanted: leaders and local color

Surveying the panoply of contemporary European leaders, John Lloyd quips in Reuters, “All this grey almost makes you wish for Silvio Berlusconi to return, to lighten the mood.” “At times it seems that Europe, ...
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