“Capitalism vs democracy: Europe’s hard problem”
Institute Director and Ira D. Wallach Professor of History at Columbia University Mark Mazower has recently published an essay in the New Statesman.
“Europe’s future will not be the same as its past. It won’t return to the world of the ancient regime, nor will democratic institutions face the same challenges that beset them after the First World War. But so long as European political allegiances and sentiments remain rooted in a sense of national belonging, achieving a unified political system through the EU will always be a delicate business. Globalisation is undermining social equality not enhancing it, and if the EU is to live up to its democratic promise it will require a more decisive turn away from monetary stability and budgetary orthodoxy towards a politics of social solidarity. The struggle to reconcile capitalism and democracy goes on.”