On May 26th polls for the European Union’s ninth parliamentary elections closed all over Europe. As votes were counted and results were posted, it became more and more apparent that there was a major …
The Use of Fear for Populist Gain: Silvio Berlusconi and His Control Over the Media- by Julia Fischer
Silvio Berlusconi was a successful businessman. He owns the majority of the Italian media, and he was ranked among the world’s richest people in 2006. Along with being a billionaire, he was also a …
How to Defeat Populism: Three Lessons from Slovakia by Jenny W. Xiao
On March 30, 2019 Zuzana Caputova, leader of Progressive Slovakia (PS), won a sweeping victory in the country’s presidential election. In a few months, she will become Slovakia’s first female …
Continue Reading about How to Defeat Populism: Three Lessons from Slovakia by Jenny W. Xiao →
Threats to a Healthy Democracy: Fake News, Populism, & the Anti-Vaccine Movement by Alexa Keith
On May 6, 2019, a drone dropped flyers outside of an Ariana Grande concert in Sacramento. The flyers read, “the press is the enemy”, “mob organized crime”, “police state/fascism”, and featured images …
What’s up with Celebrity Politicians Turning Out to be Populist? By Omar Battisha
Take a peek into stores in the US and you'll find a plethora of campaign gear for political candidates that only exist on TV shows–everything from shirts touting support for The West Wing's Jed …
The Insidiousness of the Extreme Right in Austria by Alec Wood
It’s not every day that Austrian and American politics intersect. Monday morning, April 30, 2019, reporting from Vice News revealed that the Kootenai County Republican Committee unanimously passed a …
Continue Reading about The Insidiousness of the Extreme Right in Austria by Alec Wood →
Democratic Backsliding in the Visegrad Group Threatens European Union’s Future by Simon Machalek
The Visegrad Group, also known as V4 — a cultural and political alliance of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia — used to be seen as a prime example of how countries with an authoritarian …
What do Populists and Reformers Have in Common in This Year’s European Elections? The Environment
by Sarah Ampolsk In observing the elections that have taken place on the European continent thus far in 2019, two countries stand out. The first is Slovakia, one of the four central European …