Could climate change lead to more democracy? Under specific circumstances, yes. Read all about it in my blog post for David Zetland's awesome blog series (and soon to be book) Life Plus 2 Meters: http://lifeplus2m.com/climate-charged-democracy/
Just some short thoughts on the Catalonian referendum on independence. 1. I've said this before, about Brexit and about the referendum that legitimized Erdogan's autocracy, but I'll repeat it. Referendums with a simple majority (50 percent of the vote +1) as a threshold on constitutional issues may be democratic, but they are not legitimate... Continue Reading →
Leiden, prid. Kal. Sep. MMDCCLXX A.U.C., A major issue in modern feminism is the big difference between the number of men and women in leading positions. Some have argued for quota which force companies and the public sector to offer leading positions to women. However, if 'we' want women to work more and achieve more in... Continue Reading →
Makineia, a.d. VII Id. Jul. MMDCCLXX A.U.B., As per the 19th of July, more than four months after the parliamentary elections, Dutch political parties have not yet formed a new government, leaving the 'demissionary' second Rutte cabinet as a caretaker government. Seeing the close relation between executive and legislature in the Dutch parliamentary system -... Continue Reading →
Science has progressed much by using the experimental method, because it allows us to control many of the important variables including they key independent variable, and it allows us to randomly assign subjects to the treatment or control group, so we can control for confounding variables. I will give a short intro to the experimental... Continue Reading →
In the last few years many cases of scientific fraud have been uncovered. Fraud is defined as: “Wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain” by the Oxford Dictionary. In the case of scientific papers several forms of fraud are imaginable, such as deliberately citing other sources wrongly in the theory... Continue Reading →
Leiden, prid. Non. Apr. MMDCCLXX A.U.C., As the polls show, Erdogan had his way, and Turkey has taken another step towards autocracy. Although much has been said about autocratization in Turkey, and the role the constitutional amendments have in this process (an excellent summary of the constitutional amendments, by Jochanan Mussel, can be found here),... Continue Reading →
Pigouvian taxes beat regulation for Amsterdam's tourist dilemma. Read all about it at: http://www.iminternational.nl/2017/04/04/taxation-beats-regulation-for-amsterdams-tourist-dilemma/
Leiden, Id. Mar. MMDCCLXX A.U.C., As I discussed in earlier posts the European Union suffers from a democratic deficit. The main reason for this is that governments negotiate directly with each other and the European Commission, while European Parliament is relatively weak compared to the national governments and the European Commission, and national parliaments do not... Continue Reading →
