Election day is nigh upon us. With this in mind, there are three dimensions to the question I have been thinking of asking: Who wants to run, who wants to vote, and who wants to govern. In May 2014 the Dukakis Center examined an apparent inflation in the number of candidates running for local and […]
By Marten van Heuven The author is a retired senior US diplomat with extensive experience in European affairs. He contributed this note in response to an invitation by Politis for thoughts on the trans-Atlantic dimensions of the crisis in Greece and the eurozone. I find the situation in Greece and in Europe unsettling, in part […]
By Efi Stefopoulou Regulatory policy may be defined broadly as an explicit, dynamic, and consistent “government-wide” policy to pursue high quality regulation. Greek regulatory policy has been subject to a long-lasting reform effort that has just recently reached a major milestone. A law has just been enacted setting better regulation principles and prescribing the procedures […]
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 articles in the mainstream media challenge our thinking about different dimensions of homo politicus. Some people seem to […]
By David Wisner Politis has pointed this phenomenon up before. Newsworthy Grecians can no longer hide behind the figurative distance between Athens and the rest of the world, or the relative inaccessibility of the Greek language outside Greece. Two examples since the beginning of December suffice. Stephen Grey, who spoke at the Dukakis Center on […]
Bit and pieces below from an essay by Nicco Mele in Salon on Anonymous and the threats of hacking to contemporary security. “Anonymous, untraceable private networks—the kind that can be built by technology like FabFi or Tor—are called ‘darknets,’ literally networks that exist in the shadows of the Internet. They are increasingly easy to build, […]
By Michael Ertel NB Michael Ertel is Supervisor of Elections in Seminole County, Florida, where he has served since 2005. He spoke at two Dukakis Center events during the 2016 election period. Politis reproduces these remarks with permission of the author. When I tearfully hugged our staff as they left the building last night, my […]
Purpose The purpose of World Homeless Day is to draw attention to homeless people’s needs locally and provide opportunities for the community to get involved in responding to homelessness, while taking advantage of the stage an ‘international day’ provides. How To Make a Difference educate people about homeless issues […]
This weekly feature offers a glimpse of what is happening in and around Thessaloniki. Compiled by Laura Strieth. Thu 7th Mar- A Social History of Yoga- Mr. Nikos Dimitriadis invites everyone to join his ‘Religions of the World’ class at ACT as they learn about the history of Yoga. During the session, Ms. Spyridoula Bakoyianni […]
Excerpts below from an article in yesterday’s New York Times by Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Felix Marquardt, founders of Europeans Now. “The time is ripe for a transnational, transgenerational, transpartisan, grass-roots and crowd-funded movement to take European integration to the next level. And before forming a party, we should look to Europe’s success stories to determine what […]
By Maria Kalogeroudi This is the new 5 euro bill. The old one is still acceptable and can be used for trade. We still do not know when it will be considered invalid, but announcements will be made. Includes new and more amplified evidence of authenticity. The watermark and hologram present the portrait of Europe, […]
Freelance journalist and blogger Kostas Kallergis recently visited the Dukakis Center where he spoke about fighting corruption in politics. In his prepared remarks he underlined that there are two main methods of fighting corruption: 1) the Judicial system, as it has laws as weapons; and 2) the media, which inflicts punishment through publication. Kallergis also […]
By Krysta Kalachani Maria Houkli has a point in her editorial on the closure of ERT in glimatikotika.gr Friday morning. But there can also be strong criticism to what she says. In my view the way that the government decided to close down ERT sends messages drawn from other political systems: the public or state […]
A striking scene from the Copacabana.
Note from the Editors. Alan Henrikson is the newest Member of the Honorary Advisory Board at the Dukakis Center. We reprint his farewell lecture, delivered recently at the Fletcher School, as a token of our rewspect for his long and distinguished career. Fletcher: A Great Place to Teach—and to Learn by Alan Henrikson Dear Friends, […]
Google and YouTube claim they can help teachers turn teenagers into better citizens. Watch the clip below to find out how.
The Dukakis Center will host a virtual launch of “Still at Aulis: Essays on Crisis and Revolution in Greece and the Eurozone,” a Kindle e-book by David Wisner, Executive Director of the Center, on Thursday, March 6, 2014, from 12 noon throughout the afternoon. Interested parties can follow the event on the “Still at Aulis” […]
By Kostas Kallergis The Greek government spokesman announced some minutes ago, all of a sudden, that the Greek Radio & Television will stop broadcasting as of tonight, midnight. In a pretentiously sturdy press conference he explained the reasons why the government came to this crazy decision. Simos Kedikoglou gave the public a long list of […]