Since Greece’s deeply inconclusive parliamentary elections last week, there has been a rather half-hearted effort to try and form some kind of coalition government.  But it seems inevitable that Greeks will return to the polls some time in June. This leaves two rather important questions to be answered: what happens in the meantime, and who are Greeks likely to vote for in this seemingly inevitable second set of elections?

(c) ΠΑΣΟΚ Continue reading “Greece: elections but no government” »

By Begüm Burak

Democracy is the most ideal form of government in the contemporary world. In the post-Cold War era, with the triumph of liberal democracy against Soviet Communism, the importance of democratic norms and principles were emphasized. In fact, the emphasis put upon the virtues of democracy was a product of the Second World War, with the United States’ victory as proof for the necessity of democracy in the new world order.

“…[the] Turkish Army is determined to defend the unitary secular state founded by Ataturk… [and the] Protection of fundamental characteristics of the republic cannot be considered as an intervention in domestic politics.” Isık Kosaner, ex-Chief of the General Staff[1]

Continue reading “When will democracy be the only game in town in Turkey?” »

After the leaders of New Democracy, Syriza, and PASOK took their turn

to try to form a government, Greek President Karolos Papoulias will attempt, according to constitutional procedure, to form an all-party coalition government to resolve Greece’s political deadlock. He will meet with the leaders of all seven parties that won seats, including neo-nazi Golden Dawn which won 7% of the vote in last week’s elections.

Continue reading “Greek President attempts an all-party coalition government” »

By Hadleigh Roberts

It has been just 24 hours since François Hollande won the presidential election and I can see the clouds gathering already.

After a safe campaign, the Right in government for ten years, and a victory in the debate against the least popular president in history, we are left with just 51.8% to show for it.

Those who said the campaign could not be lost have been proven wrong. It would be a foolish act of both naivety and wishful thinking to suggest that massive Labour gains in local elections and a Socialist victory in France signal a revival of the Left in Europe. (I don’t even need to open the Guardian to know it is saying exactly that!)

That all sounds very pessimistic, but just as I said that it was important to remember that ‘no sitting president ever lost the first round’, we must also remember that the Parti Socialiste (PS) has never won two consecutive national elections. Mitterrand was re-elected in 1988, but that was in between the cohabitations of 1986-1988 and 1993-1995.

Continue reading “Second thoughts on the second round” »

By John Loughton

So I am not proclaiming to be some sort of guru on French politics or even to know that much about Sarkozy or Hollande, but I was surprisingly moved tonight. It’s amazing watching Francois Hollande be inaugurated as President elect of the Republic of France. He won 52% of the popular vote, being elected on the first round with a total electorate of 80.5% it seems. This is a man who is anchored in a rural community, was flown into candidacy unexpectedly at the last minute, and from what I have seen has carried out his campaign with modesty, honesty and a refreshingly cogent alternative to the incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy.

(c) AFP/Philippe Desmazes/Le Monde

Continue reading “France has made the right choice” »

Fellow writer Chris McCourt stated correctly that “the strongest argument in favour of Mr Hollande seems to be that he is not Monsieur Sarkozy”. Where I disagree is with his opinion that Sarkozy’s low ratings in polls are mostly down to an ‘image problem’.

Certainly his image has hindered him over the years; the nickname ‘President Bling Bling’ does him no favours, nor does it help voters to identify with him.

(c) Marie-Lan Nguyen

Sarkozy introduced tax breaks for a tiny minority of super-rich cronies, while living the life of a tycoon himself, alongside his heiress third wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. The couple have regularly enjoyed luxury holidays abroad (often at somebody else’s expense), or else at Ms Bruni-Sarkozy’s palatial private villa on the Riviera. Continue reading “Game up for Sarkozy, but is Hollande really the change France needs?” »

By Begüm Burak

(c) Wikipedia

In his famous question “who will guard the guardians?” Plato places a rather challenging and provocative question mark in everybody’s mind. Throughout the course of history, political corruption and the tendency of elites to oppress the masses have been witnessed by countless examples. As Lord Acton stated “power corrupts.” In sort, the limitless and unchecked (political) power puts a considerable amount of pressure upon people.

In the case of Turkey, the state-building process and the nature of Turkish political culture gives important signs in analysing the political processes and nature of the relationship between the ruler and ruled. In this context, despite having free and fair elections, Turkey does not have a fully-consolidated democracy. Some argue that the Turkish political system is a procedural democracy.

In recent years, Turkey has been undergoing an enormous transformation process. The civil-military relations have started to normalise whilst separation of powers has been strengthened. In previous decades some political parties, (just like the Republican People’s Party, namely the CHP that is the main opposition party today) abused the Constitutional Court in line with their own ideologies. In addition to that, the Turkish Armed Forces in Turkey used to have an important degree of political autonomy[1] which has been challenged by the Justice and Development Party (the AKP) government in recent years.

Let’s now take a look at today’s Turkey. What has changed and why do I need to ask the famous question propounded by Plato “who will guard the guardians”? In order to answer this question a general framework regarding Turkish political history, political culture and state tradition must be explicated.

Continue reading “Who will guard the “guardians” in today’s Turkey?” »

The BBC recently published two articles (to coincide with a radio documentary) pushing the theme of the dangers inherent in the cyber realm. The first, by Katia Moskvitch, lists the five ‘biggest threats’ in an interview with the Chief Executive of the Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab, Eugene Kaspersky.  The second article, by Michael Gallagher, looks at intentional government-sponsored cyber-meddling and how this may define the “blitzkrieg of the future”.

These two articles are classic cases of cyber alarmism (hyping the threat and constantly playing on worst-case scenarios), use the metaphorical meaning of the word ‘war’ to death, and miss the most important characteristic of activities in cyberspace: the difficulty of attribution.

I wish to clear up some of the points made and language used – public debate and government policies are increasingly confused, and conflate many different phenomena in the cyber realm under such terms as ‘cyberwar’. Continue reading “Cyberwar alarmism: don’t panic!” »