To be honest: The Austrian Parliament has opened itself a lot towards the public in recent years, e.g. through its visitor center, its new website or the TV broadcasts on ORF3. But when it comes to visiting parliamentary debates, the situation has worsened on the visitors’ balcony, as I had to experience again today. Unfortunately,…
Category Archive for: Democracy
While Austrian politics is becoming more and more of a fake democracy (whether it’s on the military referendum or the Viennese referendum), the Austrian newspaper DER STANDARD leads the way in terms of true participation. For a special issue on direct democracy it asks its readers for their ideas on articles as well as their…
Last week was packed with so many great events that I needed some days of reflection before blogging about all those exciting and inspiring insights. First of all, I attended the Opening Night, City Conversations, and Rain City Chronicles events of the SFU Public Square Community Summit and the Carbon Talks lecture. Moreover, I volunteered…
Apart from my visit to UBC’s CIRS, I also participated in an interactive dialogue on “Online voting” at the HiVE Vancouver last weekend. In this first session of the “E-volving Democracy” dialogue series, people with different backgrounds from computer scientists to political activists made a clear case against online voting. The session started with a short introduction by…
In Austria, several organizations use the day before Labor Day to “celebrate” the “Day of the Unemployed”. At times of crisis, this day is more important than ever as Europe is threatening its fragile recovery through its austerity politics. So, it was no surprise when the International Labor Organization (ILO) yesterday stated that high unemployment…
Finland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Greece, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, the Netherlands and probably soon also France – this is the Guardian’s long list of the European countries whose governments resigned or weren’t re-elected during the past 14 months (!) due to their failed austerity politics. So, what remains from Europe’s two-year long try to calm…
The current protests of ten-thousands of people in many Spanish cities are closely followed throughout Europe. While the Arab Spring was about a transition from dictatorship to democracy, the protests in Spain aiming for real democracy (“Democracia Real Ya”) are targeted at a postdemocratic system that’s ruined through the economic crisis. 45% youth unemployment brought young…
There’s a lot to say about the current financial and economic crisis. When daily news on bankrupt European countries, US debt or increasing commodity prices are increasing global imbalances, it becomes more difficult to stay on top of things and make sound economic predictions. That’s why I’d like to share three recent intersting analyses: Nouriel…
