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In the digital age, how does government deal with rumour in a crisis? After Fukushima, the anti-rumour strategies of the Japanese government led some to question which party, the masses or the government was more involved in the dissemination of rumours. Dominant political thinking considers rumours merely a threat to be contained. But if you allow emotions into the picture, you could reach a very different conclusion, one that requires a return to Rousseau’s general will.
Recognising that globalisation is a policy rather than a natural force, the author hopes for a gradual, civilised transition to a more self-sufficient, locally or nationally based economic order. (Originally published in 1933. Edited by openDemocracy in 2012)
Last week protest rallies were brutally broken up by police, and their organisers imprisoned. But as the Occupy Abay sit-in and organised ‘strolls’ through the centre of Moscow have shown, protesters are gaining confidence and adopting new tactics.
Fenby isn't just right about the biases and simplifications that are commonplace in airport-book ‘polemics’ about China - he is right for the right reasons.
The link between ‘karamah’ and ‘al hurriyah”, the call for dignified existence and the rejection of oppression has given birth to a further crucial concept – that of the social responsibility of public authority. This cannot be achieved by maintaining the economic polices of the old regimes.
Every ultra-rich person has the income of 100 poor people. But this is not Dickensian England or Depression-era America. It is the Italy of today. Halting the rise of the super-rich will be a crucial issue for the politics of the future.
Ten ideas for lobbying David Cameron as co-chair of the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals High Level Panel
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Just about everyone in Russia - the Kremlin, the opposition and most Russians in the street – agrees that corruption is one of the country’s most serious problems. Newly re-elected President Putin has promised to fight it, but where should he start, and what models in other parts of the world should he be looking at? Mikhail Loginov considers some of the possible alternatives.
Vladimir Putin’s swearing-in as President last
week was accompanied by protest rallies that were brutally broken up by police,
and their organisers imprisoned. But as the Occupy Abay sit-in and organised
‘strolls’ through the centre of Moscow have shown, protesters are gaining
confidence and adopting new tactics. Journalist
Tikhon Dzyadko, who was himself hurt in the recent clashes, reports.
The 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia was portrayed as a beacon of hope for democracy and progress in the region. Far from developing society towards a free market, however, the current government has retrenched and its policies and programmes are redolent of a planned economy. This can only end badly, says Vakhtang Komakhidze














