Extending human and civic rights
Hillsborough: A most extraordinary scandal
A few days over 27 years and justice may finally have been done. After new inquests that have been sitting for two years, a jury decided that the football fans who died in the Hillsborough stadium disaster on 15 April 1989 were unlawfully killed. Local Merseyside MP, Andy Burnham, described what occurred since that day […]
A ‘Jeffersonian’ wall or an Anglican Establishment: The US and UK’s contrasting approaches to incorporating Muslims
Drawing on their recent research Nasar Meer and Tariq Modood consider whether the British or American social compact is conducive to the incorporation of Muslims, and find that while the US may be more of a secular state, the UK is a more secular society and with a more secularist political culture. They argue that […]
The junior doctors’ new contracts reveal the redundancy of equality assessments when policy goals are already determined
The government recently released its Equality Analysis of the contract it intends to impose on junior doctors. Its ‘tortured logic’ reveals much about what the government really thinks about gender equality and work and family life issues, argues Jill Rubery. Similar PostsAudit 2017: How effectively is gender equality achieved in the political and public life of […]
Without supportive measures the minimum wage increase will do little to reduce inequality in the UK
National minimum wage increases over the next four years are – on their own – unlikely to solve the escalating inequality in the UK, or the widening gap between business owners and wage-earners. Teemu Alexander Puutio writes that more ambitious measures are needed, and suggests that shareholder ownership plans could offer a private-sector driven and […]
Analysis of the women selected and elected by quota in Ireland dispel the myth that they were under-qualified
The introduction of legal gender quotas for the 2016 general election in Ireland resulted in a marked improvement in the number of women candidates selected and TDs (parliamentarian) elected. However, questions of merit and qualifications were continually raised about women candidates throughout the campaign. In this blog Fiona Buckley and Claire McGing assess the political […]
The political potential of migrants is often overlooked in discussions around integration
In a recent study, Hanna Wass, Päivi Pirkkalainen and Marjukka Weide drew on the Somali community in Finland as a case study to consider immigrants as a political resource. They found that turnout among Somali-born voters was only slightly lower than native citizens, and that their engagement in civic associations is highly dynamic and diverse. […]
Freedom of expression on the internet is of utmost importance but it needs to be weighed against social responsibility
The Internet has created seemingly limitless opportunities, but it also offers a platform for violent, hateful, and antisocial behaviour. Drawing on his recent book, Raphael Cohen-Almagor considers how to strike a balance between the free speech principle and social responsibilities. He proposes that deliberative democracy mechanisms could be used to promote content net neutrality and […]
Still united in diversity? The longer a country is part of the EU, the stronger its citizens support liberal democratic values
What effect does EU membership have on the values of citizens? Drawing on recent research, Odelia Oshri, Tamir Sheafer and Shaul Shenhav assess the extent to which the EU has been successful in instilling the democratic values in its own citizens that it claims to promote externally. The research demonstrates a strong connection between a […]
Freedom of movement is not simply an economic good, but a bulwark against oppression
Freedom of movement is frequently posited as an economic good, writes Floris de Witte. But it is much more than that. It allows Europeans to pursue a way and quality of life that simply may not be possible in the state where they were born. And in curbing the capacity of domestic politicians to scapegoat and […]
In a world in which ‘everyday sexism’ remains rife, progress on gender discrimination will require quotas
As our recent Audit of Democracy post by Sonali Campion and the DA team showed, the UK continues to exhibit large disparities in power and representation between men and women. Here, Nicola Lacey of the LSE’s Commission on Gender, Inequality and Power shares findings from the commission’s final report, and recommends that quotas – particularly when […]
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