Publications

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and Social Europe Journal (Edt., March 2015): The Pegida demonstrations that took place in Dresden and some other big German cities have attracted a significant amount of attention in the media across Europe and beyond. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and Social Europe organised a joint project to analyse the Pegida phenomenon and its context. It has provided a fascinating but deeply worrying look beneath the surface of European politics. It has revealed that Pegida and the wider context of European populism are best understood as symptoms of continuing social and economic changes that so far lack convincing political answers. This eBook compiles a series of articles from authors from different European countries, addressing the issue from their respective angle.

Dieter Rucht (March 2015): After appearing as if out of thin air in Dresden on 13 October 2014, the protest movement Pegida soon spread to several cities in Germany and other European countries, growing larger by the week and sparking an overwhelming amount of media interest. Pegida gives voice to a widespread mood that has so far been expressed primarily in representative surveys and scientific studies, but rarely in a distinctive protest movement. In his paper, the author takes a look at the undercurrents in society that can explain the Pegida phenomenon.

Ulrich Storck (January 2015): The outcome of the upcoming general election in May is anything but predictable. Polls are suggesting that neither Tories nor Labour are going to win an overall majority. Meanwhile the support of UKIP and the SNP is growing and a coalition is more likely. And beside these upcoming events there is the question of a possible Brexit. In his outlook, the author takes a look at the possible outcomes of the general election in May and the different choices and paths for the United Kingdom.

Henning Meyer (December 2014): The digital revolution associated with the Second Machine Age is likely to create major public policy challenges. Inequality in particular, already back at record levels, will be further increased by technological progress and unemployment is likely to rise at least in the transitional period as digital agents become more and more capable. Against this backdrop, policy-makers should think about measures to reduce inequality, incentives to re-allocate the remaining work and ways to safeguard meaningful employment with a public job guarantee.

Scenario Group EU and East 2030 (2014): Four scenarios for relations between the EU, the Russian Federation, and their Common Neighbourhood in 2030 were developed by a multinational Scenario Group over the summer of 2014. The scenarios do not attempt to predict the future, but offer different visions of possible and plausible futures. They can be helpful in enabling decision-makers and stakeholders to adapt their strategies in order to achieve or avoid a certain scenario.

Marc Saxer (October 2014): To overcome the transformation crisis, Thailand’s political, economic, social and cultural order needs to be adapted to cope with the complexity, diversity and permanent conflict of a pluralist society. Such innovation faces resistance by those who are invested in the status quo. Saxer argues that only a broad societal change coalition can build the political muscles needed to implement the necessary paradigm shift. Only a political platform based on inclusive compromise enables social groups with diverging interests and worldviews to join forces to struggle together for a new social contract.

Markus Schreyer (November 2014): The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) currently being negotiated between the EU and the United States is a matter of political and public controversy. More objective discussion requires that both the opportunities and the risks be evaluated transparently and properly. It is clear that any positive growth and employment effects should not be overestimated and the risks of adverse effects on prosperity should not be underestimated.

Sabine Stephan (November 2014): It is often argued that the transatlantic free trade agreement will open up substantial growth and employment opportunities to the participating countries. In her paper Stephan presents the findings of the three most influential investigations – the study by the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and two studies by the ifo Institute – in terms of their expected growth and employment effects. Stephan argues that even with extraordinarily optimistic assumptions the expected growth and employment effects are tiny.

László Andor (January 2015): In this new paper, published by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and the Social Europe Journal (SEJ), former EU Commissioner László Andor examines the discussion about mobility within the European Union with a specific focus on the United Kingdom. Responding to a tone of debate that he considers “distorted and unfair”, Andor proposes several ways in which migration could be managed better without the need for treaty change to “cap” numbers.

Alice Martin, Helen Kersley, Tony Greenham (December 2014): The report shows how rising economic inequality was a major cause of the financial crisis. This is the conclusion of an emerging body of research into the links between inequality and the growth in scale and influence of the financial sector. To reduce the risk of future crises, the report argues that financialisation needs to be rolled back and policies to reduce inequality have to be implemented.