All tagged politics

Russia today: Different Tsar, same story

Maximilian Weber

Ever since its inception, Russia has been defined both by itself and by its (often short-lived) neighbors as an aggressively expansionist power. Like many other powers, this became the defining feature of Russia, a form of consistency across regimes. Whether it was the ancient Rurikids, expanding 18,000 miles a year under Ivan the Terrible, or the Romanovs expanding into the Ukraine and Alaska, Russian rule was synonymous with expansion.

A Hungarian perspective on the upcoming elections

Dániel Cséfalvay

History has shown that the Slovak-Hungarian relations are fragile and if the grievances are not approached carefully it can easily become confronting and even hostile. Growing up during the notorious Jan Slota era, I personally experienced how comments fuelling hate can easily be translated to every-day conversations, even between children.

Sanders under fire again

Maximilian Weber

Suffering a shocking defeat to the populist Republican Donald Trump left the Democrats of the USA in an uncertain position. Clinton, despite winning the popular vote and running on a strong feminist narrative that appealed to the liberal voters of the USA, lost. This narrative was especially important for the Democrats, as they had effectively sabotaged the campaign of Sanders, and thus needed to find a candidate which would fill the shoes of the Social Democrat.

30 years after: revolution unfinished

Peter Sterančák

The revolution is like drinking too much vodka. The first few shots are hopeful – even euphoric. The world seems to be in equilibrium with your improving mood – ready for a personal revolution, everything seems bright and shining, solutions seem easy and within a grasp of another shot of vodka. Then, as the ethanol in your veins increases in amount, things start to look blurry and incomprehensible.

Thank you!

Jonáš Jánsky

On this day 30 years ago, the police of Czechoslovakia’s communist regime has used violence in order to suppress a student demonstration that has started as a celebration of the international students' day. The protesters started to demand from the government to uphold the human rights of all citizens, the freeing of political prisoners, as well as dialogue between the government and various independent initiatives. Due to that, the police tried to dissolve the demonstration.

Marek Vagovič: "I became an investigative journalist by pure coincidence; I had no such plans."

Ivona Mičeková

Marek Vagovič is an investigative journalist working for web portal aktuality.sk. He won the Open Society journalist’s award 8-times already while being nominated for the same award 18-times so far. In 2018 he won Biela Vrana (White Crow) award together with other 6 fellow journalists for the civic courage and promotion of truth in society. One of the 7 recipients of the award was also his murdered colleague Ján Kuciak.

The age of digital identity: the trap for political action

Cade M. Olmstead

It is on social media where the vast majority of political expression is carried out after all. Is this just because of the technology’s widespread popularity or are the digital commons the only place in which one can be public? Is the virtual in our eyes virtually the only option? So much of one’s identity is increasingly tied up into these social media platforms.