Alexander Seling
Stories (5/0)
Is The EU Having a Legitimacy Crisis?
Introduction This essay will argue that the EU is facing a crisis of legitimacy as a result of the Eurozone Crisis of 2008-9, a summary of the crisis will be outlined before going over how this crisis impacted the different types of legitimacy (output, throughput, & input legitimacy). Finally, I will put forward several recommendations that the EU could consider in order to resolve this crisis of legitimacy and slowly but surely rebuild its reputation with its member states and also regain the trust of the citizens of Europe. By ‘crisis of legitimacy’ I am referring to the recent erosion of trust that member states and citizens have in the EU, this is an outcome that deeply concerns members of the EU because it can be argued that this kind of crisis prevents members of the EU from enacting certain legislation. This is because if they were to try and pass a significant piece of legislation is it likely that some member states would resist it’s implementation and citizens may feel that their voices are not being heard and the EU is following its own agenda rather than the will of the citizens and the member governments.
By Alexander Seling3 years ago in The Swamp
Can We Disarm, Should We Disarm?
In this essay I will explore two very important questions, is nuclear disarmament feasible and is it necessary? I will begin by discussing the recent attempts by the Obama administration to move towards the goal of reducing the nuclear arsenals of the nuclear powers around the world. Here I will look at the many different policy areas in which the administration attempted to create the conditions for a safer nuclear world, but also the challenges and failures that it encountered. I then move on to examine the recommendations of the Nuclear Security project, and the conditions they present as, in their opinion, necessary for creating an international environment that is united in the aim of achieving nuclear disarmament. I then explore the necessity of disarming, here I will examine the inherent risks of the current system and how prone it is to mishaps and failures in judgement. I also look at the moral issues of threatening death and destruction on innocent people of another nation to achieve stability.
By Alexander Seling3 years ago in The Swamp
Are the Many, Wiser than the Few
The concept of collective wisdom can be traced back to Aristotle’s famous book “Politics”, in which he states that “it is possible that the many, though not individually good men, yet when they come together may be better, not individually but collectively, than those who are so, just as public dinners to which many contribute are better than those supplied at one man's cost". Since then, the idea has been expanded upon by generations of academics and reformers and has fuelled democratic theory. In this essay I will aim to explain more thoroughly, what Aristotle meant when he spoke of collective wisdom. I will do this by examining the relevant passages of “Politics”, but also looking at a few other academics that have researched this concept more recently. I will then move on to discuss the many arguments for and against this idea and its effect on modern democracy. Here I will look at works by Bryan Caplan and Helene Landemore among others, to present how this concept's implications is still heavily debated among academics.
By Alexander Seling3 years ago in Humans
Do Far-Right Parties Achieve Anything?
The rise of the far right in European politics has been noted throughout academia, as well as society in general. Parties across Germany, Poland, Hungary, France, Switzerland and Austria have gained unprecedented popularity with the voters, with the Swiss People’s Party reaching a high of 25.6% in 2019 and parties in other countries achieving over 12% of the vote (Buchholz, 2021). In this essay I will try to explore how these parties influence mainstream politics, and whether they can have a significant impact on policy. The first part of the essay will focus on an examination of the performance of the BNP in Britain from 2001 to 2005, the Front Nationale in France from 2002 to 2007 and the Lega Nord in Italy from 2001 to 2006. I will look at these parties through the lens of the issue of immigration, as this has been a major focus of these parties, but is also arguably the policy area, which the far right has in recent times targeted more than others. The second part will discuss several observations that academics have made surrounding the concept of contagion from these far-right parties. In this section I will try to examine several studies that have tried to map out the different rules and structures that either lead to a greater contagion effect, or stop parties from being able to have an effect on mainstream parties. In the last part I will examine the limited impact many of these parties have had, but also how some of them, like the Lega Nord, have actually upset the odds and achieved major success.
By Alexander Seling3 years ago in The Swamp
Two Allies
In the face of an overwhelming threat to peace, justice and freedom arising from a militaristic and twisted foe, two great powers overcome their differences and follow the doctrine of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". What follows is economic cooperation, supply of vital equipment and machinery which furthers the war effort against the common enemy and leads, in the end, to victory over the dreaded force. Soon after this success however, the unthinkable happens, the two friends suddenly grow suspicious of each other. What once was an alliance with a common cause now more then ever seems cold, and the threat of conflict seems to hang in the air. Subsequently they begin operations to hamper the other, through foreign intervention, military activity and the spread of propaganda and influence, the two former allies vie for control and dominance over the other. If this story sounds familiar to you and you probably have reasonably assumed that I am referring to US-Soviet relations during, and after World War II, you would be wrong. The story I am referencing is actually a story which takes place around 480BC, in Greece. The Achaemenid Empire ruled the Middle East, its armies numbered in the hundreds of thousands and its territories stretched from Greece in the West, to India in the East. In 490BC, the hegemon of the east turned its attention towards the Greek city-states, and began its second invasion of Greece. Being confronted with an almost insurmountable force the two most powerful city-states, Athens and Sparta, banded together in a Hail Mary attempt at defending their homeland. This partnership resulted in the defeat of the Persian forces and their retreat from Greece. In the face of this victory, one would assume that all was well. Baffingly however, soon after the enemy had been repelled, old rivalries reappeared. As Athenian influence and power began to steadily increase as it expanded its dominion over most of Greece, Sparta became very weary of its former ally and so embarked on its own quest for allies against Athens, and military preparation. With this course of action both sides became more and more entrenched, tensions rose higher and higher, and eventually cause one of the most famous Greek conflicts, the Peloponnesian War. The pattern of this conflict, and the parallels that can be drawn to the dynamics of the Cold War are striking. The time between the Peloponnesian War, and the Cold War was over two thousand years, yet the mechanics of international relations don't seem to have changed much. Has the human race actually learned from its experience, or is it bound to repeat these patterns constantly. What conclusions could be drawn from this? Not every alliance is doomed to follow this course. The main issue with both of these scenarios is that the two main members had completely different ideologies. Sparta was a militaristic dictatorship, whereas Athens, was a trade-based democracy. The two had fundamental differences in values and as soon as the Persian threat had been eliminated, these came to the forefront and boiled over into conflict. Similarly, the USA and the Soviet Union were incompatible ideologically and so once Nazi Germany had been dealt with, they became suspiscious of each others intentions and the result was the Cold War. The lesson here is that the only reliable alliances are formed between nations that have similar foundations in terms of values, traditions and beliefs. NATO has become one of the strongest alliances in the world and most of the countries while having differences, agree on the fundamental value of freedom, democracy and peace.
By Alexander Seling3 years ago in The Swamp