Deepening Democracy in India: Fine-tuning rules and procedures to strengthen...
The Deepening Democracy report by the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Securitydiscusses the importance of improving the integrity of elections. While fairness, funding and conduct of...
View ArticleCountdown to First Czech Presidential Elections
UPDATE: In the final week, the Czech presidential race opened up. Jan Fischer performed poorly in the debates, while the Czech Republic's aristocratic foreign minister, Karel Schwarzenberg, picked up...
View ArticleWhat Next for Britain’s Pro-Europeans?
Having, until now, benefited from the tacit support of the existing political elite, Britain's pro-European lobby has had less incentive to create a formal political movement. However, if the...
View ArticleExit strategies and state building: an interview with Richard Caplan
Professor Richard Caplan, of the DPIR, Oxford, and editor of the new book Exit Strategies and State Building, talks to Politics in Spires about the book itself, the practice of internationally-led...
View ArticleQ&A: China Across the Divide: the domestic and global in politics and society
I recently interviewed Professor Rosemary Foot about her new book, China Across the Divide: the domestic and global in politics and society (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), as part of...
View ArticleQ&A with Dr Cristina Parau: Why do politicians let judges have so much power?
Dr Cristina Parau, Department Lecturer in European Politics and Societies at Oxford University, recently edited a special issue of the journal Representation. This issue focuses on the phenomenon of...
View ArticleOne Year In: Assessing the 19th Knesset
The last legislative elections in Israel were held one year ago today. If the 19th Knesset survives a full four-year term, it is now quarter-way through its life. It is far too early to begin...
View ArticleNational Dialogues and Dilemmas: Reflections on Libya and Yemen
The Arab uprisings, initially perceived as one unit of analysis, have gone through a rite of passage and identified themselves as distinct from one another; it is no longer logically sound to talk of...
View ArticleCentral Government Makeovers
Have repeated ‘makeovers’ created a government machine in the UK that works better and costs less? Or has a relentless focus on cost-cutting damaged traditional administrative values? In a wide-ranging...
View ArticleNew issue of St Anthony’s International Review
St Antony’s International Review (STAIR) is proud to announce the publication of its 19th issue, “Thinking Beyond the State: Emerging Perspectives on Global Justice”. The launch event will take place...
View ArticleDouble standards on sex work in the EU: The ‘Nordic model’ criminalizes...
The European Parliament (EP) recently voted in favor of a resolution that supports the so-called ‘Nordic model’ of sex work. With this decision from the 26th of February, the EP backs a report titled...
View ArticleMatteo Renzi’s PD eight months later: where now for the Italian left?
Leading the Italian left has never been an easy task. After the collapse of democratic centralism (i.e. the Leninist practice which obliged the membership to uphold any leader’s decision following an...
View ArticleEvents in Iceland show that a UK constitutional convention should involve...
After the financial crash of 2008, Iceland’s prospects looked promising in two respects. First, the government decided to call the IMF to the rescue following the Central Bank’s botched attempt to get...
View ArticleEU Commission hearings at the European Parliament
n October 2014, candidates for the new European Commission were put through their paces at public hearings of the parliamentary committees responsible for the portfolio to which they have been assigned...
View ArticleEd Miliband’s Labour and ideology. Did New Labour change the party forever?
In 2010, Ed Miliband inherited a party troubled by tensions and confusion. After three electoral victories and 13 years in office, New Labour had lost its appeal due to the legacy of the Iraq war, a...
View ArticleWhere is British conservatism today?
On Friday 10th October 2014, Britain woke up to the news that the voters of Clacton-on-Sea had elected a UKIP Member of Parliament. To some, no doubt, this marked the inevitable culmination of the...
View ArticleWhere is British conservatism today: UKIP, conservative, libertarian or...
As was said in the opening paragraph of this series, a well-rehearsed interpretation of UKIP is that they are a grouping to the right of the current Conservative party, dissatisfied with the old...
View ArticleBlue Labour and Conservatism
Following Labour’s defeat at the 2010 general election, a new intellectual movement, close to the new leader Ed Miliband, began to gain ground within the party. ‘Blue Labour’ is most closely associated...
View ArticlePopulism vs. Technocracy? How political parties adapt to new dominant...
Over the last decades, populism and technocracy have attracted a great deal of public attention and generated a lively scholarly debate. As it has recently been argued, they have emerged as the two...
View ArticleHow Many Judicial Review Cases Are Received by UK Government Departments?
During the debate in parliament on Monday 1 Dec 2014, Chris Grayling (Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice) was asked how many Judicial Review cases are brought against government...
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