A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
0
comments
Fathers, sons, and political preferences
Posted May 22, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner There is a wide ranging debate ongoing these days about the sources of political behavior, be they social or genetic. Elias Dinas of the University of Nottingham has published a very interesting bit of research on the effects on youth political socialization of politically engaged parents. The general question asked is how […]
comments
“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 […]
comments
Choose4Greece II, 17 June 2012 Elections
Posted June 8, 2012 by ip-admin
Choose4Greece is an online application which calculates voters’ ideological congruence with political parties for the June 17 elections in Greece. Choose4Greece II represents an update, which takes into consideration the changes in the Greek political party landscape, on the initial application that was launched because of the significance of the May 6 general election and […]
comments
Why ideology needs to take a back seat for now: a response to the May Elections
Posted June 15, 2012 by RS
By Ruth Sutton The Greek electorate voted with the less practical parts of their bodies in May… their feet, hearts and gall… and not so much with their heads. The two parties (and their dynasties) that have dominated the political scene for decades desperately needed a wake-up call, but will voters risk instability in order […]
comments
The new conventional wisdom on Cyprus?
Posted March 26, 2013 by Politis
The papers were full of analysis on the heels of the EU-Cyprus agreement Monday. Not surprisingly, after some of the hyperbole, there came reflection. The deal, it appears to some, was not as bad as it might have been, and not as bad as it has been made to appear. Hugo Dixon writes in Reuters, […]
comments
One crook for another
Posted February 28, 2013 by Politis
This one’s rich. According to todays Chicagoland blog in the Chicago Tribune, “Republican voters are suggesting the 2nd Congressional District replace one felon with another after picking ex-convict Paul McKinley as the candidate to run for the seat recently ceded by former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.” Jackson pleaded guilty last week to misusing campaign […]
comments
The Great Debate: The Greek Parliament Votes
Posted November 7, 2012 by DW
comments
News on the street
Posted November 8, 2013 by Politis
A picture says more than 1000 words, or so they say. And now, the news.
comments
Saying of the day: 6/19/13
Posted June 19, 2013 by Politis
“We didn’t decide that Greece was in trouble; Greece was in trouble…” — Jean-Claude Juncker
comments
Center right, center left
Posted December 23, 2012 by Politis
The title of a recent analysis in Politico – “The disappearing independent” – struck this reader as personal. I looked down at my hands, at my feet; checked in the mirror to see that my nose, ears, and eyebrows were still there; I even dug out my blood pressure gizmo to make sure my heart […]
comments
Volunteer at WOMEX Thessaloniki
Posted May 5, 2012 by pdcadmin
In mid October Thessaloniki will be hosting the WOMEX World Music Expo. This is a great privilege for Thessaloniki as it will bring a lot of artists and great talents from around the world to Thessaloniki and it will also set up more production and music sales networks for the city. For those of you […]
comments
More on those pesky 16 year-old Scottish voters
Posted June 9, 2013 by DW
The British think tank Demos has put this short video out arguing the merits of allowing 16 and 17 year-old citizens the right to vote in Scotland.
comments
A Greek winner!
Posted March 22, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Christina Flora A Greek team of student-entrepreneurs won first place at the Pan-European trade fair, organized by the international organization Junior Achievement Europe (JA-YE), in Riga, Latvia, with 450 pupils from secondary schools and high schools from 30 countries of Europe and Africa participating. Business ideas were presented in the exhibition and combined technology […]
comments
We don’t get to choose these things
Posted January 10, 2015 by DW
By David Wisner Armchair expert on the Greek sovereign debt crisis that I have portrayed myself to be, you can imagine my relative despondency having read Pavlos Eleftheriadis’ article on Greece’s oligarchs in a recent issue of Foreign Affairs. Reading Eleftheriadis’ account of recent Greek history, it appears that one should have given up the […]
comments
Open the doors/where are the people?
Posted April 3, 2013 by DW
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/where are the people?” We would then interlock our fingers and perform the same series of steps: […]
comments
Oversight of Cyprus banks: how it should work
Posted March 20, 2013 by Politis
Clive Crook has this to say about the proposed legislation to tax depositors in Cyprus, an idea he labels as “stupid.” “You want bank bondholders to be concerned about the safety of their investment, so that they exert some discipline over the banks, and you want small depositors to rest easy about the safety of […]
comments
What are Greece good at?
Posted June 7, 2012 by DW
By David Wisner There is good news and bad news this week from the birthplace of democracy. On the one hand, according to findings from the European Values Study published by Tilburg University in Holland, more than 80% of those polled in Greece showed support for a democratic regime. This is clearly the highest average in the […]
comments
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 […]
comments
Crisis, what crisis?
Posted October 23, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner Some years ago, when I first settled permanently in Thessaloniki, I met another ex-patriot who had been here for decades already. How long? I asked her. “Long enough to think the Greek way of doing things is the normal way,” she replied. Won’t happen to me, I thought, naively. And continued to […]
comments
Saying of the day: 6/17/13
Posted June 17, 2013 by Politis
“People should appreciate who gets to run for office when you have a [public financing election] system [like the one in New York City]. Librarians run for office, ex-teachers run for office — not just people who have a rolodex of prospective donors. It’s good for the candidates and the voters alike.” Dan Cantor (Executive […]