By Linus Hoeller, Northwestern University Reports Without Borders consistently ranks Austria among the best countries when it comes to press freedom in their annual investigations. In RSF’s 2021 report, Austria ranked 17th – putting into the second-highest bracket of countries altogether and near the top even of the European countries[1]. Curiously, there are some discrepancies…
It’s always election season in Europe – dozens of competitive multi-party democracies packed onto a single continent will do that. Among those heading to the polls later this year are the Germans, choosing the future path for Europe’s most populous country and main economic powerhouse with great sway in the EU’s politics. Recently, the German…
By Linus Hoeller, Northwestern University Few Chicagoans can remember a time before the promises of a southward extension of the city’s public transportation backbone, the Chicago Transit Authority’s Red Line. However, none has seen it go beyond a mere promise. Decades have passed since the idea of extending the Red Line, going from the Northern…
By Linus Höller, Northwestern University In the most unusual year of the current millennium, democracy and freedoms around the world suffered at an unprecedented level. This becomes apparent from two much-anticipated reports on the status of freedoms in the world, published by Freedom House and the Economist’s Intelligence Unit. Freedom House’s annual “Freedom in the…
By Linus Hoeller, Northwestern University The concept of American decline has been around for about as long as America has been a global power. This is not surprising; when you are at the top, it can seem like the only way to go is down. The United States experienced its unipolar moment following the fall…
By Linus Hoeller, Northwestern University Few political words raise such intense emotions as “communism” and “socialism.” A common buzzword in elections in the U.S. and around the world alike, they are also really existing and nuanced ideologies. Because of the politicization of the mere terms, some clarity has been lost about where – if anywhere…
Linus Hoeller, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism Historical overview of the region’s democratization and backsliding When the “communist” dictatorships of Eastern Europe fell, one by one, in 1989 – and, with the exception of Romania, in a remarkably peaceful fashion – western euphoria was great. These countries and their people, newly “liberated” from their…
Linus HoellerNorthwestern UniversityReporting on the ground from the nation’s third-largest city, Chicago Nearly three weeks after an eventful election in the former British colony known formally as the United States of America, the incumbent far-right president D. Trump has yet to concede to his victorious centrist challenger J. Biden, calling about an unprecedented democratic crisis….
For those Americans who wield power in society, the cost of breaking with America’s foundational ideology – arrogance – is greater than the benefits, allowing American exceptionalism to be a conservative force and slow down the USA’s progress. It prevents change from being enacted, better examples from being followed and actively works to preserve broken…
How Trump and Covid have sowed division and fear of violence in Chicago’s suburbia and around the country