Essays & News

    To be sure, over the last years we have witnessed – especially in the media – an increasingly indiscriminate and misleading use of the term “excellence”, which is usually seen as the sole route towards modernization and social, political and cultural development. Yet it takes some qualifications and a bit of caution, if […]

The G20 finance ministers and central bank governors have already met twice this year to discuss the world economic situation, writes Prince Michael of Liechtenstein. After the February meeting in Shanghai, they released a cautiously optimistic communique congratulating themselves for “important achievements” in bolstering growth and stability. This was revised to an even more optimistic […]

previously published as ‘Antidotes To The Methodological Individualism Poisons Of The Conspiracy Theory Of History And Society’ in: Sociologia. Rivista Quadrimestrale di Scienze storiche e sociali, XLIX, n. 2, 2015, pp. 15-21 Introduction: plots and conspiracies in the society and history The conspiracy theory is a theory that circumvents the common understanding of historical or […]

Privacy is a valuable thing. An anonymous source has provided millions of documents revealing the private financial dealings of Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca’s clients to an international consortium of investigative journalists. Those clients no longer enjoy privacy. The names of famous people mentioned in the documents were splashed across headlines around the world. These […]

Plädoyer für eine Schadensersatzpflicht demokratischer Politiker. Warum Abgeordnete gegenüber ihren Wählern juristisch haften und persönlich ersatzpflichtig gemacht werden sollten, wenn sie vorsätzlich oder fahrlässig Schäden verursachen. (Original veröffentlicht in: Der Hauptstadtbrief 135, 7. April 2016) Man erntet in diesen Tagen keinen Widerspruch mit der Feststellung, dass sich unsere europäischen Demokratien in einer Krise befinden. Teils […]