About Political Developments

This blog was started to chronicle political developments across Europe in November 2011, a month when bond yields rose and credit ratings fell, a technocratic government was installed in Italy, and grassroots movements (including Occupy and G1000) questioned the democratic legitimacy of governments.

In difficult economic times, issues of fairness and equity come to the fore.  Were the bank bailouts a massive transfer of wealth from poor to rich, or a necessary step to save the global financial system on which we all depend?  If public services must be cut, what is the fairest way to divide an ever shrinking pie?  Are our politicians over-worked lackeys or corrupt spongers?

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Alison Smith is a College Lecturer at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.  She teaches comparative politics, Russian politics and European politics.  Her research focusses on democratisation processes in the post-communist region. She also works as a political and economic risk analyst specialising in central and east Europe.  As a native Scot, she takes an interest in the ongoing independence debate.