Latest blog articles

  • It is not that listening to the electorate is wrong. It is not wrong either to build a campaign on perceived wishes of the electorate. Trying to win an electoral campaign either, is wrong.

  • What exactly are the legal instruments for the EU according the measures that have been introduced recently with regard to the constitutional court and in terms of the media law. This article is only available in Dutch.

  • Legitimacy in the political sense can be defined as an inquiry into the justification for the exercise of public authority. Or put differently: it is the reason why I, being part of society, should accept laws and regulations that bind me.

  • The difficult thing about the Brexit referendum and the events that followed in the United Kingdom is that the instrument of a referendum, in all its simplicty, may have undemocratic consequences... This blog is only available in Dutch. 

     

  • How should we describe last week's situation, when the Canadians headed home after the Walloons torpedoed CETA? ... This blog is only available in Dutch. 

  • There is a lot of consternation about Donald Trump and his remark about only accepting the results of the presidential election "If I win". According to Trump, the election is 'rigged' if he looses... This article is only available in Dutch. 

  • Brexit_EU

    Far from calm waters

    They say that one cannot have one’s cake and eat it – a rather well-known adage which the proponents of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union were determined to disprove. This article is only available in Dutch.

  • The day after the “Brexit”-referendum, with a majority of 51.9% voting to leave the European Union, some speak of the success of democracy (“the people have spoken”). Already, there are calls for referenda in other countries to let the people speak there, too. This suggests that independently of our...

  • Several days ago, the French government forced the acceptance of a disputed law about - among other things - labour issues. Its treatment in parliament was incredibly labourious and almost 5000 amendments had been proposed... This blog is only available in Dutch. 

  • After months of media bombardment about ostensibly lazy Greeks who are unwilling to pay their taxes or their debts to the fellow countries of the Eurozone, the latter of which generously helped Greece out of its self-inflicted dire financial straits, many in Europe have breathed a collective sigh of...