A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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The downward spiral of Turkish democracy
Posted June 1, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Livy Merchant When I was a curious teen-aged kid, I subscribed to a series of Time Life books on history and civilization. One was a beautiful book entitled Islam, the Religion of Peace. It was the early fifties and this was the only source of my knowledge of Islam at the time. It was illustrated with […]
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What we need in politics today
Posted April 20, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Maria Kalogeroudi I just read a post by Angelos Barbalios. This guy is what we need in today’s politics: enthusiastic and young. I like how his article is straight to the point, yet any college student who is psyched about politics could generate such a blog entry. Still a very interesting blog to follow […]
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Criminal matters
Posted October 30, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner There has been a lot of talk recently, both in Greece and in the US, about criminal behavior at the highest levels of political life. In the US, one party has allegedly sought to blackmail and extort the government in the recent standoff over the shut down of the federal government. Here […]
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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 […]
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Afghanistan on the Aegean?
Posted June 25, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Alexis Papahelas It won’t be long before the relationship between Greece and the troika starts resembling that of the United States with Afghanistan. The efficient Americans entered that historical and complex country and tried to set up a modern state, an open economy etc. Not long after they started to realize that they were […]
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Boutique politics in times of crisis
Posted February 10, 2014 by M P
By Maria Patsarika A new company has come to my attention, called West Wing, a political consultancy. Unbelievable, where did this come from! A true ”boutique outfit,” that. As I was going through “West Wing’s” strategy – what a name they chose, huh, reminds you of American sitcoms – I thought that the facelifting that […]
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Saying of the day: 3/18/13
Posted March 18, 2013 by Politis
“If you make people’s lives better they will pay you for it — bottom line.” — Rob Markey
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Lustration and the Arab spring
Posted May 8, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner The Dukakis Center hosted well-known Greek blogger Kostas Kallergis in April for a talk on lustration as a means of dealing with corruption in Greek politics. Hearkening back to attempts in various countries in Eastern and Southeastern Europe in the 1990s to deal with their former communist past, Kallergis concluded that the […]
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What they’re saying about us now
Posted July 10, 2012 by MK
An annotated collection of recommended articles about Greece and the eurozone, updated regularly by Politis’ summer staff intern, Miriam Kamil. To July 5, 2012 Ann Appelbaum of the Washington Post had this to say on June 29 about the immediate post-election climate in Greece. It is an excellent recap of the events of the week […]
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Is this the moment for national service?
Posted June 30, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner Michael Gerson had some interesting thoughts about an offhand remark made recently by retired US General Stanley McChrystal on service to the nation. McChrystal had expressed concern that only 1 percent of Americans serve in the armed forces, resulting in an unequal distribution of burdens and an unequal development of citizens. “Once […]
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Center right, center left: biology and politics
Posted March 10, 2013 by Politis
“A growing body of experimental research is finding evidence suggesting that, to some degree, political inclinations and ideological leanings may be tied to innate factors like a person’s biology, physiology and genetics.” So reads the conclusion of a recent article in Politico. Politis has run stories like this for a couple months, now. It all […]
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Why do I stay?
Posted January 12, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner I was interviewed on local TV some weeks back about possible ways out of the economic crisis that has gripped Greek society. Before closing out the interview the journalist asked me why, as a foreigner, I stay in Greece. I fumbled a little for an answer, having been caught off guard. Why […]
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The long and the short of the Cyprus deal
Posted March 29, 2013 by Politis
The Economist has published this excellent assessment of the aftermath of the Cyprus deal last weekend. More might be said of the political fall out, which will surely be felt more intensely as the economic situation in Cyprus deteriorates. “The euro zone bail-out agreed for Cyprus means that the worst possible outcomes have been avoided: […]
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Light on the Cypriot horizon
Posted March 27, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Javier Solana Once again, Europe has peered into the abyss. But the tentative agreement between Cyprus and the troika (the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank) probably means that the worst has been avoided. Big losses for large depositors in Cypriot banks will now be imposed, and the country’s […]
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A culinary public service
Posted April 3, 2013 by M P
We all know that Ilias Mamalakis cooks delightfully… Imagine doing this in a prison and publishing a book about it. Cooking as public service.
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Saying of the day: 5/10/13
Posted May 11, 2013 by Politis
“Unlike in Greece, corruption is not a way of life in Spain. Most Spaniards go about their daily business without ever paying a bribe. But experts say that the concentration of power in the hands of regional and municipal officials and their ties to the local savings banks created ideal conditions for corruption in […]
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Armed revolution… or democracy?
Posted May 11, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship We were struck this week by one response to our broadcast last week on gun violence and the Newtown school killings. A visitor to the website wrote, “It is interesting to me that Bill Moyers, who every week describes the massive levels of corruption in our government… [and] the […]
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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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Nerdy citizenry
Posted April 29, 2013 by Politis
By Politis Are geeks the model citizens of the 21st century? Bill Moyers and Co. think so, with compelling evidence. “… we see hackers getting involved in so many different domains of politics… there are some bread and butter issues: free speech and privacy, civil liberties. This is something that a lot of hackers who […]
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The Crisis of the EU and the future of Greece
Posted December 9, 2012 by DW
By David Wisner Lecture given at Hamilton College, New York, September 2012 The title of my talk is: «The Crisis of the EU and the Future of Greece». It might well have been the inverse: «The Crisis in Greece and the Future of the EU». Semantics aside, the core problem I will address is whether […]