Autocracies have been disappearing across the globe over the past two decades. Yet the collapse of dictatorships has frequently led not to democracy, but to chaos (see charts). Thomas Hobbes, author of Leviathan, thought the absence of any government worse than the presence of a bad one. Life, he declared, is then “nasty, brutish and short”. Government by psychopath may well be still worse than anarchy. But run-of-the-mill autocracy is not. What political fate, then, is likely to befall Iraq, Russia, Lebanon, Ukraine, Chile, Tanzania or any of the multitude of countries that have moved towards democracy in recent decades? To answer these questions, we need to explain not only why democracy emerges, but what determines its subsequent stability. [...]

France's new President Nicolas Sarkozy casts himself as a moderniser, championing a clean break with the country's traditional ruling elite. President Sarkozy says he has a duty to bring about change The need to adapt to the fast-moving modern world was a key point in his inaugural address. He pledged to revive the work ethic, promote new initiatives and fight intolerance, including racism. He has a powerful mandate from the French people to push through reforms, after a huge turnout in the election which saw him triumph over Socialist candidate Segolene Royal.   As a highly combative interior [...]

  Le PS toujours pas au clair avec Blair   Les socialistes se divisent sur le bilan du Premier ministre britannique, aujourd'hui à Paris, qui quittera le pouvoir le 27 juin. Dix ans et trois victoires consécutives plus tard, Tony Blair s'en va. Le Premier ministre britannique a officialisé hier un départ qui sera effectif le 27 juin. Son règne s'achève au moment où commence en France celui de Nicolas Sarkozy, qui a souvent pris un malin plaisir à tenter de s'approprier cette référence, et qui le rencontrera aujourd'hui. Et au moment où la gauche française vient de subir son troisième échec consécutif à l'élection présidentielle. Le PS, lui, a souvent été gêné aux entournures par un Tony Blair dont [...]

  Tony Blair fait sur YouTube le bilan de son action politique       Quelques semaines avant de quitter son poste de premier ministre, Tony Blair soigne sa sortie médiatique : sur un ton détendu, il a défendu son bilan en répondant aux questions des internautes de YouTube relayées par John O'Farrell, un chroniqueur caustique de la vie politique britannique, sur la chaîne du Parti travailliste, Labourvision. L'entretien a été découpé en six extraits, mis en ligne sur YouTube, deux par deux, mardi 24, mercredi 25 et jeudi 26 avril. Sur un ton badin, John O'Farrell présente l'événement comme une première dans l'histoire du Web, "ni Margaret Thatcher ni Winston Churchill" ne s'étant [...]

    L'Express du 06/04/2006 Emploi Echec français, modèle britannique ? propos recueillis par Anne VidalieLes statistiques sont cruelles: 4,7% de chômeurs parmi la [...]

New book: “Beyond the European Social Model” 23 March 2006 Beyond the European Social Model argues that the high-tax and highly regulated “social model” is not working, and that the time has come for the EU and its member states to take a different approach. The authors look at both success stories and failures from around Europe and paint a picture of how reforms might work. Neil O’Brien, Director of Open Europe said: “Instead of tinkering around the edges with the failed Lisbon programme, EU member states need to go for the plunge and undertake the kind of radical shift to a low-tax low-regulation economy which has transformed Ireland from a backwater into one of the richest countries in the world.” “If the EU is to help [...]

The Hampton Court Agenda: a Social Model for Europe   The material contained in this pamphlet is the result of a Policy Network research programme on the future of the European Social Model. The programme launched in July 2005 had two [...]