democracy

Forty years of democratic Spain: No resemblance to what it was

Spain Remains A Full Democracy, Despite Limitations On Civil Liberties Due To The Pandemic

Spain has fallen 17 tenths of a point and six places in The Economist’s democratic quality index, although it remains in the “full” democracy category. The country has never failed to be a “full” democracy since the index was created 15 years ago. It has a score of 8.12. Furthermore, “democracy received a big blow in 2020” at a global level, stated the study. Almost 70% of the countries examined have regressed in “democratic freedoms” due to the restrictions on civil liberties caused by the fight against the pandemic.




Time for Spain to get a foreign policy

Did We Really Need The Economist To Call Spain A Full Democracy ?

The Economist Intelligence Unit has published the 11th edition of its ranking on the global state of democracy. Of 165 countries in the world, Spain is ranked 19th for the quality of its democracy. It is not bad given the political instability Spain is experiencing. Nor the open breach in confidence following the crisis between citizens and politicians and citizens and economic powers. Nor taking into account Spaniard’ s tendency to self-flagellation.


greece

Greece: Public deficit and democratic duty

ATHENS | By Nick Malkoutzis via MacroPolis | A newspaper article on Sunday, quoting an allegedly secret report by officials at Greece’s General Accounting Office and the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), claims that the country’s deficit figure in 2009 was “over-dramatised” (or “sexed up” if you prefer) by the PASOK government that took over in October of that year. 




lksd1

Weekend read | It’s the democracy, stupid!: capitalism and equality

Gustavo Matías, in Madrid | State or capital markets, regulations or freedom, financials or the real economy,  equality or inequality, inclusiveness or mobility: these are some of the dichotomies that explain the present and future of capitalism. The debate has been lately reopened mainly in British soil, by the media big guns such as the Financial Times. However, major imbalances affect nowadays the whole of Europe or the emerging countries, where not enough…


corruption

Corruption: trending now in the EU

Three quarters of Europeans see corruption as a major problem at all levels of government, and 8pc of respondents to the latest Eurobarometer survey say that they have been asked or expected to pay a bribe in 2011. Not only corruptions remains a major problem in the European Union but levels are thought to have risen over the last three years. The picture of Europeans’ sentiment regarding abuse is compelling, to…