Dusting Off Local Politics: New Ideas for Political Participation in Rust Belt Cities
Our world today is increasingly marked by social divisions. The political fault lines can be witnessed between liberals and conservatives, generationally between millennials and boomers, or geographically between urban and rural …
The German SPD and the Curse of Corbynisation
On December 12, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party slipped to inglorious defeat in what was Britain’s third general election in four years. Labour’s worst result since 1935 leaves the party no …
A Farewell to Power: Germany’s Social Democratic Party After the Election of a New Party Leadership
The Social Democratic Party, Germany’s oldest democratic party which emerged from an early German labor movement, survived the challenge of communism after World War I, was forced into exile during …
Social Democracy in Search of Its Identity
Despite untamed global capitalism and growing inequality within advanced economies, the traditional left continues to be in sharp decline. Social democratic parties lost significant support in almost all Western democracies, …
Maneuvering Around the Middle: Party Politics in 2020
In the last two weeks, four political parties in Germany have gathered at their annual conferences to start positioning themselves for the next federal election, currently scheduled for 2021. In …
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Uprising Against German Chancellor in the Case of Huawei
From the U.S. perspective, the situation is simple. The Trump administration banned the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei from the U.S. market—and made it pretty clear that it does not want …
Anticipating Uncertainty: Lessons from 1989 for 2020
As we approach the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, some of us might recall where we were when we heard the news of …
The 2019 Thuringia Elections: New Winners, Tough Challenges
With Sunday’s vote in Thuringia, the 2019 election year in Germany came to an end. Following several state elections, including in Saxony and Brandenburg, approximately 1.7 million voters went to …
The Economics of AfD Expansion
With the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) achieving almost 25 percent in the elections in the two east German states of Brandenburg and Saxony in September 2019, and both …
Jeff Rathke on Voice of America’s “Encounter”
AICGS President Jeff Rathke appeared on VOA’s “Encounter” program to discuss the way forward for Brexit with host Carol Castiel and Erik Brattberg, Director of the Europe Program at the Carnegie …
Austria’s Vote: An EU Trend with an Alpine Twist
Austria’s parliamentary election on September 29 has mirrored one key result of the vote for a new European Parliament held in May of this year: the rise of unconventional center …
Trinitarian Politics in Germany: Impact of the State Elections in Brandenburg and Saxony
A lesser-known story in Christian history is how the concept of the Trinity of God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—was the subject of massive disagreement in the early years of the …
Episode 13: Elections Reveal New Trends in German Political Scene
Voters in two eastern states went to the polls on September 1, with perhaps surprising results: they kept their long-governing parties in place despite threats from the far right and …
The Mainstream Strikes Back with Victories in Saxony and Brandenburg, but the AfD Is Not Going Away
Voters in Brandenburg and Saxony today rendered judgments that reach well beyond the borders of two states that used to be part of the German Democratic Republic, as my colleague …
