The assassination of Gdańsk Mayor Paweł Adamowicz at the hands of a deranged ex-con did not occur in a vacuum. It cannot be separated from the degeneration of public discourse in Poland under the Law and Justice (PiS) government – or from the anti-European nationalism embodied by the PiS and similar parties elsewhere.
Despite some recent steps in the right direction, the current international tax system is outdated and fails to prevent egregious tax avoidance by digital multinational companies. The world needs a corporate tax system that is fit for the digital economy and benefits developing and developed countries alike.
Many liberals are shocked by the rise in recent years of xenophobic nationalism in Poland and Hungary, given that both have made substantial economic progress since joining the European Union. But that simply means that Central Europe’s turn toward populism cannot be explained in economic terms.
New technological advances are not just upending traditional economic and political arrangements, but also altering what it is to be a member of society. The changes now underway will fuel further serious disruptions unless they are managed cooperatively and proactively at the global level.
Even if China maintains its market-oriented reform momentum, tensions with the West are unlikely to be resolved quickly. While steps can be taken to reduce these tensions, they cannot be easily eliminated, which means that they will probably be a key factor shaping the future of China’s development model.
After weeks of facing down protests and riots by the "yellow vests," French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a national public consultation to determine where citizens stand on a number of pressing issues. But while a genuinely inclusive national debate may be just what France needs, it also could backfire spectacularly.
Without the high-quality research that independent think tanks provide, there can be no effective policymaking, nor even a credible basis for debating major issues. Insofar as funding challenges, foreign influence-peddling, and populist attacks on truth pose a threat to such institutions tanks, they threaten democracy itself.
