How do we manage free speech?

While free speech allows ideas to flourish and individual to express themselves freely, has social media, opinion reporting and political tribalism enabled wild and nonsensical conspiracy theories to proliferate the US? Ash Howell believes independent regulators, improvements in education and a process of healing between warring factions must take place to ensure individuals are able to cut through the noise and make independent judgements based on facts. Without this, events like the January 6th insurrection may be replicated in the future.

Act Like A Man: Deconstructing Political Gender Biases

The US elections last year may have marked a historic moment for women in politics with Kamala Harris becoming the first woman to be elected vice president, but to Niamh the fight for gender equality in higher office is far from over. She argues that gender biases and leadership stereotypes continue to disadvantage women as “societal constructions of what it means to be ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ set the stage for political inequality”.

Why Joe Biden isn’t the answer for progressives

Is Joe Biden the answer for progressives? After a turbulent four years many are viewing Biden with rose-tinted spectacles. However, by analysing Biden’s lengthy career in politics we can begin to make predictions about the next four years, and it doesn’t look good. A chequered past on social issues, empty promises on the environment, a mouthpiece for big business and not to mention sexual misconduct allegations; Biden isn’t the answer.

In The Shadow, A Dream: How 250 Million Workers Came To Strike In India

Whilst farmers fight cops in Delhi, tit-for-tat killings between the right and the left escalate in Kerala and Maoists stage an insurgency in Chhattisgarh. Sam Glasper suggests an intensified prolonged class struggle looks likely to grip India as millions go out on strike against the pro-corporate polices of the government. “A long history of class struggle encapsulates the Indian workers movement and its momentum is sure to become a problem for BJP Prime Minister, Narendra Modi”.

Money, Money, Money: The EU at a breaking point

Amidst a ranging pandemic and looming economic downturn, the EU has designed a much-needed recovery package as part of its 2021 budget. However, conflict over rule of law led to a crisis in which Hungary and Poland vetoed the budget. Capucine explores the ominous underlying question that this crisis reflects and that the EU will eventually have to face: how to manage contrasting understandings of democracy within the union, when it is itself built upon the unifying concept of liberal democracy and the rule of law?

How long will it be before we see a woman in the top job?

How much longer will we have to wait to see a woman finally reach the Oval Office? While Kamala Harris has broken new ground in the fight for women’s equality by becoming the first female Vice President-elect, Amelia Brennan argues that “in order to address the perpetual dominance of men at the top tier of US politics, we have to address the inequalities embedded within US society as a whole.”