A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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Civic education in Greece*
Posted February 24, 2012 by DW
By David Wisner Last November the Dukakis Center hosted an international symposium on political reform in Greece. We brought in a wide variety of distinguished practitioners, scholars, and journalists to engage in a frank public conversation about how the Greece of tomorrow might appear. We gave equal time to students and young professionals, however, and […]
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Extreme citizen action
Posted August 1, 2013 by Politis
Below the text of a petition to save the public toilets of the British city of Bath. One woman has pledged to occupy one of the toilets all day as a means of protest. Nearly 100 people have signed. …/… Dear Councillor Dixon, Please do not close our public toilets in Bath. Many people rely […]
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Public service: commitment and payback
Posted June 20, 2014 by Politis
By Brian Newby I’m blessed to be in a job that truly feels like it matches against my skills. There are many facets to overseeing elections, from public relations to candidate relations, from high-tech to situations that require a human touch, from logistics to statistics, and everything in between. I have a hard time considering […]
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He’s back! (HH, that is)
Posted June 27, 2013 by Politis
COULD Adolf Hitler come to power today? Timur Vermes poses this question in his debut novel “He’s Back” (“Er Ist Wieder Da”). Told in the first person, the plot sees Hitler randomly wake up from a 66-year sleep in 2011 Berlin. There is no explanation for how or why this has happened, but that is […]
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Protection rackets
Posted May 22, 2013 by Politis
Say you are an eager entrepreneur seeking to launch you own business. In the past, says Alexis Papahelas of Kathimerini, you might have faced “tailor-made amendments, biased legal and standards committees, and odd circulars were all mobilized in an effort to erect obstacles in the path of people outside the loop who wanted to enter […]
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Greek radicalism in context
Posted March 15, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Scott Stewart In last week’s Geopolitical Weekly, George Friedman discussed how the global financial crisis has caused a global unemployment crisis and how Europe has become the epicenter of that crisis. He also noted that rampant unemployment will give way to a political crisis as austerity measures galvanize radical political parties opposed to the […]
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“Do you mean what you say?” Mark Mazower on political extremism
Posted February 11, 2013 by Politis
Mark Mazower, the author of “Salonica, City of Ghosts,” was interviewed in Kathimerini this past weekend. Here is what he had to say about political extremism in Greece today: “The new and highly disturbing feature of the scene in Greece is obviously the rise of the far right. Its emergence forces us to confront the […]
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Participedia
Posted May 8, 2013 by Politis
Participedia is an open global knowledge community for researchers and practitioners in the field of democratic innovation and public engagement. “We live in a world in which citizens of most countries are asking for greater involvement in collective decisions. Many governments, non-governmental organizations, and even some corporations are responding by experimenting with ways to increase public […]
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Civic engagement and the practices of democracy
Posted April 8, 2016 by Politis
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That’s right, keep talking…
Posted March 4, 2015 by KK
By Krysta “Keep Talking Greece” is one of the sites I have been following from time to time. Although they do not really say who is writing (this is not to their advantage), they seem to have a clear distinction btw the articles they repost and their own original opinion articles. They seem pretty serious […]
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The broken shackles of social media
Posted November 5, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Jiya Pinder Some weeks ago, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras made the decision to shut down the state broadcaster, The Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation. The decision has sparked the discussion of social media role and origins in Greece. Rachel Donadio, the author of “Greeks Question Media, and New Voices Pipe Up” in the New York […]
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Around the town: 5/15/13
Posted May 17, 2013 by laura
This weekly feature offers a glimpse of what is happening in and around Thessaloniki. Compiled by Laura Strieth. Thu 16th to Sun 19th May- 10th Thessaloniki Book Fair- The institution of the Thessaloniki Book Fair has established a dynamic presence the last 10 years and signals its new era by creating strong collaborations and international […]
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The US is not Greece; or, beware of economists bearing regressions
Posted March 10, 2013 by Politis
Matthew O’Brien says in this month’s Atlantic, “No, the United States will never, ever turn into Greece.” What he means is that, contrary to the view of certain economists, the US will never “spend itself into bankruptcy.” According to the popular wisdom O’Brien seeks to debunk, “too much public debt makes markets nervous. Nervous markets […]
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When push becomes shove: getting citizens to act in their own best interest
Posted August 1, 2013 by DW
It was originally called the “Behavioural Insights Team,” a team of British policy analysts who employed psychological research to persuade citizens in the most subtle of ways to pay their taxes on time, get off unemployment, or insulate their attic. Now Canada has created a “nudge unit,” whose mission is to “nudge citizens into acting […]
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What is the gagging law (UK)?
Posted September 6, 2013 by Politis
There has been a lot of talk in the UK about the so-called “Gagging Law” and its implications for democracy in Britain. Here the folks of 38 Degrees explain what all the fuss is about.
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More center right, center left
Posted January 14, 2013 by Politis
This just in from Fishbowl DC: After dropping out of the presidential election and a two season-long Republican bashing media tour, Jon Huntsman is ready to lead along with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). The pair, along with Republican Strategist Mark McKinnon, are founders of “No Labels” a project aimed at fostering bipartisanship in Congress. Huntsman […]
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Greek PM’s letter to the European Council (in English and Greek)
Posted June 28, 2012 by ip-admin
The letter in English: Athens, 27 June 2012 As I have already informed you, I will unfortunately not be able to attend the current European Summit, due to an eye operation I had to undergo. Greece will be represented by the President of the Hellenic Republic, Mr. Karolos Papoulias. With this letter I would like […]
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Depositor’s rage
Posted March 21, 2013 by Politis
Helena Smith of the Guardian reports this from Nicosia on the evening of March 21: “At branches in Nicosia, the divided capital, Cypriots queued for hours in the hope of withdrawing cash with lines frequently moving at a snail’s pace because of the inability of cash machines to dispense more than €40 euro at a […]
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We are fed up
Posted May 30, 2012 by Politis
By Politis We live in Greece. Most of us are Hellenes, a few others foreigners who reside here by choice; we have all lived and studied abroad. We have different ideological preferences. Some of us work for public entities, others in the private sector. A few of us run our own businesses, trying to keep […]
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In search of a Greek social contract
Posted February 24, 2012 by DW
By David Wisner I’ve been thinking a lot about the American Declaration of Independence. Let me explain by way of an anecdote. Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s long-time business associate, is blind in one eye, owing to complications in a cataract operation. As Alice Schroeder tells the story, Munger never blamed the doctor, instead accepting responsibility […]