Societies
The existence of an international civil society is the subject of theoretical debate. But beyond these debates, the study of societies remains essential to understanding how the world works.
Are African Middle Classes Coming Together? The Case of Telecommunications Employees in Kinshasa
For many observers, a change in perception of the African continent occurred in the 2010s. Attention has focused on the relatively high rates of economic growth and a high population growth associated with urban expansion; both indicators interpreted as promises of economic “emergence” leading to potential new markets.
Defining the Middle Class in the Global South. A Quantitative Perspective from South Africa
What makes you middle class? Is it your income, occupation, or education? Your family background or maybe the house and neighbourhood you live in? It is probably all of these things.
ASEAN at 50: Half a Century of Unique Experience
In its fifty-year existence, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has developed a complex, progressive and balanced approach to regional integration. Rather than the European Union’s far-reaching statements of ever-closer union, ASEAN combines highly diverse economic and political strategies of different States whose main priority is to safeguard sovereignty.
Populism: In the Heat of the Moment
The UK leaving the EU. Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election. The crushing defeat of Italy's prime minister in a national referendum. 2016 was a year of massive change led by populism. The roots of this trend are widespread, and they involve the ideological divide between the elites of current political systems and ordinary citizens, as well as the widening gaps in social inequality that can be attributed to growing globalization.
Political Targets: Womenomics as an Economic and Foreign Relations Strategy
This paper provides an overview of the womenomics strategy launched by Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and shows how a plan designed to mitigate Japan’s demographic crises and labor shortages also evolved into a foreign relations strategy to help manage Japan’s reputation abroad on gender equality.
Alternative für Deutschland: What risks for Germany?
The AfD - Alternative for Germany – founded in opposition to Angela Merkel’s policy line of supporting southern European countries, has quickly become part of the political family of "right-wing populism" in Europe, with whom it cultivates close ties.
AfD and National Front converge ahead of elections
The right-wing spiral of Germany’s anti-EU Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) has brought it shoulder to shoulder with France’s National Front (NF). The two parties see eye-to-eye on a number of issues, including Russia.
Germany: with AfD the extreme right will enter the Bundestag
The Netherlands and France are not the only founding member states of the European Union that see extreme right party’s on the rise. The “Alternative für Deutschland” gathers 10 percent of voting intentions in Germany – especially in the East. Some of its leaders don’t hesitate to use vocabulary banished since 1945.
The introduction of the minimum wage in Germany: a first assessment
Germany introduced a minimum wage on January 1st, 2015 – a first in a country that had hitherto left it to the social partners to agree on salaries. This introduction came after vivid debates between those who fought against ever deeper inequalities and those who defended the nation’s competitiveness.
Trump and the Crisis of American Democracy
Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election is an expression of the crisis of American democracy.
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