Monthly Archives: May 2014

This is a guest post from Prof Kevin  O’Rourke.  Kevin is the Chichele Professor of Economic History at All Hallows College, Oxford. The Irish Times this morning describes the increased vote for independents as an expression of anti-politics sentiment. Anti-establishment-politician sentiment, certainly, but anti-politics? That depends on how you define politics. My definition of “politics” is all about choiceContinue reading “Just Gimme Some Political Choice !”

This is a guest post from Alex Afonso. Alex is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London. He works on welfare state reform, immigration politics, labour markets, populist radical right parties and the connections between them. You can find out more about him at his website and  Twitter. In the European elections, the far rightContinue reading “The far right vote in the European elections: It’s not the economy, stupid”

This blog post is the seventh in a series of posts that come from students of our Politics of the European Union undergraduate course. As part of the course, students were asked to write about an issue pertaining to European integration. The best blog posts have been selected to provide an opportunity to exceptional young scholarsContinue reading “Crisis in Ukraine: A Test for Effective EU Policy”

This blog post is the sixth in a series of posts that come from students of our Politics of the European Union undergraduate course. As part of the course, students were asked to write about an issue pertaining to European integration. The best blog posts have been selected to provide an opportunity to exceptional young scholars at UCD toContinue reading “Integration in European educational policy and its’ implications”

This blog post is the fifth in a series of posts that come from students of our Politics of the European Union undergraduate course. As part of the course, students were asked to write about an issue pertaining to European integration. The best blog posts have been selected to provide an opportunity to exceptional young scholarsContinue reading “EU Banking Union: The Next Step for EU Integration”

This blog post is the fourth in a series of posts that come from students of our Politics of the European Union undergraduate course. As part of the course, students were asked to write about an issue pertaining to European integration. The best blog posts have been selected to provide an opportunity to exceptional young scholarsContinue reading “This time it’s different? The prospects for change in the European elections”

The conventional wisdom among policymakers in Europe is that Ireland is recovering from the Eurozone crisis because it successfully implemented the EMU adjustment program (or the Memorandum of Understanding, MOU). This is broadly true, if one accepts the performance indicators used by the Troika (the European Central Bank (ECB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) andContinue reading “Has the EU Troika Adjustment Strategy Worked?”

Electoral turnout has been declining in all European parliamentary elections since 1979. This is part of a general decline in voter turnout across the western world. Political science research suggests that young people and those on low-incomes are less inclined to vote. This is the opposite for middle aged, middle-income earners. Middle-income voters are the core electoral constituent forContinue reading “Local and European Elections: Populist Politics or Effective Problem-Solvers?”

This blog post is the third in a series of posts that come from students of our Politics of the European Union undergraduate course. As part of the course, students were asked to write about an issue pertaining to European integration. The best blog posts have been selected to provide an opportunity to exceptional young scholarsContinue reading “Euroscepticism and the protest vote: Do voters really support UKIP policies?”

With the European elections fast approaching, informing voters about the politics and policies of the parties running in the election is an important undertaking. Of course, we cannot leave the provision of information to the parties themselves. The euandi project helps citizens make informed choices in their 2014 European Parliament (EP) vote. Developed by the European UniversityContinue reading “euandi – A voter advice application for the forthcoming European elections”