Is a CNN/FOX world inevitable?
by Luigi Curini 9 December 2020 0
Two distinct patterns have been characterizing the news media landscape lately, First, according to the World Press Trends data, for example, daily print newspaper circulation between 2012 and 2017 has declined by 20 percent in Europe, 12 percent in North America, and 31 percent in Oceania. Of (...)
Corona vaccine: volunteers first, even without approval!
by Alexander Fink, Fabian Kurz 1 December 2020 0
Good news in the fight against the Corona pandemic have accompanied us during the last few weeks. On November 8th, the Mainz-based pharmaceutical company BioNTech and its American partner Pfizer announced that their vaccine is more than 90 percent effective in the decisive third round of tests. (...)
Nobel prize for UN world food programme – all that glitters is not gold
by Alexander Fink, Fabian Kurz, Translation by Anna-Maria Kohnke 25 November 2020 0
This year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize came as a real surprise. The World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations received the award “for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in (...)
Covid-19 in North Africa: economic challenges and opportunities
by Mohamed Moutii 18 November 2020 0
The Coronavirus has infected more than 48 million people and caused more than a million deaths. Numbers are still on the rise. This virus has not only taken people’s lives but also people’s jobs, businesses, and wealth. In a sentence, it has created an unprecedented global economic crisis. The (...)
Old democracies, high incomes
by Alexander Fink, Benedikt Schmal, Translation by Anna-Maria Kohnke 4 November 2020 0
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, comparing political and economic system appeared to have become a futile exercise. Western democracies had outperformed the socialist-communist social systems. Yet, thirty years later we see that no “End of History” has occurred, and that the fundamental (...)
Behind the Curtains: The Complex Reality of Sex Work
by Anna-Maria Kohnke 28 October 2020 0
Vivian in Pretty Woman, Tralala in Last Exit to Brooklyn, Fantine in Les Misérables – sex workers are commonly featured in popular culture. Social perceptions of a sex worker’s daily life are inevitably influenced by how sex work is portrayed in fiction. Some of these perceptions turn into (...)
The Evil of Agricultural Subsidies: the Case of EU Common Agricultural Policy, Netherlands and New Zealand
by Mohamed Moutii 21 October 2020 0
Although we live today in an interconnected global economy, where international trade is the norm, and most of the products we use daily are manufactured abroad, agriculture remains one of the most protectionist industries. All over the world, the agriculture sector is heavily subsidied and (...)
Corruption: Another Plague in Europe
by Alexander Fink, Fabian Kurz, Translation by Anna-Maria Kohnke 30 September 2020 0
As a reaction to COVID-19, governments are making extensive financial aid available. However, beyond helping out households and companies in need, aid also attracts opportunists. Because of this, the OSCE is expecting corruption to increase. Yet, this danger differs across countries, even (...)
Do We Need Direct Internet-Centred Democracy?
by Sergio Beraldo 23 September 2020 0
In recent years, the word “populism” has been everywhere. The first figure shows the rising use of the term by considering the frequency with which it was googled over the 2004-2020 period. As one can see, the US Presidential elections raised considerable interest. Queries reached a peak at the (...)
Croatia and Bulgaria: in-waiting of the Euro
by Krassen Stanchev 9 September 2020 0
While Europe’s GDP declines (12.1% in the Eurozone and 11.9% in the EU) and the debate on the EU next 7-year budget becomes heated, the relations between specific countries and the EU went largely unnoticed. The fact in point is that on July 10, the ECB welcomed Bulgaria and Croatia to the ERM2, (...)