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Ferguson in Flames — Steven Hill gives his view
by Steven Hill, ORF (Austrian public broadcasting), November 25, 2014
U.S. political analyst Steven Hill gives his view to Austrian public radio on the acquittal of police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of unarmed 18-year old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and racial politics in America. (go to http://fm4.orf.at/stories/1749967 …
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Will Obama Deliver on Deal with China to Reduce Carbon Emissions?
By Steven Hill, China-US Focus, November 17, 2014
Presidents Xi Jingping and Barack Obama recently reached a bilateral agreement to reduce carbon emissions. The landmark agreement, jointly announced in Beijing, includes new targets for carbon emissions reductions of 26 to 28% from the United States by 2025, and a first-ever commitment by China to stop its emissions from growing by 2030.…
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Book Review: ‘This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate’ by Naomi Klein
by Steven Hill, The National Memo, November 1, 2014
Naomi Klein’s new book, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate
, is a call to arms in the global fight to reduce carbon emissions. Her manifesto appeared only days before hundreds of thousands marched in New York City to press for more resolute action by political leaders.…
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Compromise for Hong Kong: An Electoral College That Works
By Steven Hill, China-US Focus, October 8, 2014
Watching pro-democracy students take over the streets of Hong Kong raises conflicting feelings. One can’t help but cheer their drive for greater democracy and freedom, yet at the same time remember how similar aspirations were drowned in blood in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in June 1989.…
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Why Merkel’s Foreign Policy For Eastern Europe Is Failing
By Steven Hill, Social Europe Journal, September 23, 2014
The fragile cease-fire in eastern Ukraine provides an opportunity for political leaders to reflect on how we arrived at this dangerous place of Cold War-like tensions between Russia, Europe and the United States. From Washington DC to Berlin to Warsaw, western leaders are scrambling to figure out where to go from here.…
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David Cameron’s Failures And The Great Shrinking
By Steven Hill, Social Europe Journal, September 17, 2014
In Prime Minister David Cameron’s desperate entreaties towards his fellow countrymen in the North, one can hear the resounding bleat of his own policy failures. The theme of Cameron’s tenure has become one of “The Great Shrinking”: close to losing Scotland and its 5.3 million people, and also retreating influence within the European Union and the world.…
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President Obama’s Challenge in Ferguson
By Steven Hill, ORF (Austrian public broadcasting), August 21, 2014
Political analyst Steven Hill gives his views on the killing of an unarmed 18 year old black man by police in Ferguson, Missouri, and racial politics in America. “It’s a sad, sad day…” (go to http://fm4.orf.at/stories/1744691/ and scroll down on the page to “U.S.…
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Consensus Building Through Dynamic Democracy
By Steven Hill, Lessons from Europe, September, 2014
This is a chapter from a book I contributed to: Lessons from Europe: What Americans Can Learn from European Public Policies, edited by Professor R. Dan Kelemen of Rutgers University
Political Democracy: Consensus Building Through Dynamic Democracy in Europe
A functioning political democracy is a prerequisite to having an economic system that works for everyone instead of just the better off and the powerful.…
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The EU’s Uncelebrated Achievements
By Steven Hill, IP/IP Journal (Berlin), May 21, 2014
Economic gains in Central and Eastern Europe more than icing on the cake
New research shows that living standards between eastern and western Europe are converging. But such bits of good news have been drowned out by more negative reporting in the run up to EU parliamentary elections on May 25.…
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Merkel’s flawed vision for Europe, Ukraine-Russia and beyond
By Steven Hill, Al Jazeera, April 13, 2014
Germany has been led by eight chancellors since 1949, and nearly all of them have been world-class leaders. Their vision and achievements have been immortalised in portraits that hang in the Gallery of Chancellors on the first floor of the chancellery building.…
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Merkel’s Shaky Europe
By Steven Hill, IP/IP Journal (Berlin), April 3, 2014
The Ukraine crisis points out the continent’s weaknesses — made in Germany
(German-language version here)
Until now, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has weathered the euro crisis well enough. But the Russian annexation of Crimea illustrates the fragile state in which the old continent still finds itself.…
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McCutcheon’s Silver Lining: How It Could Undermine Super PACs
By Steven Hill, The Atlantic, April 3, 2014
The Supreme Court’s ruling puts more money into politics, but it could help parties and candidates wrest back some control.
Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling in McCutcheon vs. Federal Election Commission is the latest in a long parade of horribles, as many commentators have pointed about.…
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Santa Clarita goes beyond politics as usual: bold new path to a more diverse City Council
By Steven Hill, Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2014
The city charts a bold new path to a more diverse City Council
Earlier this month, Santa Clarita settled a California Voting Rights Act lawsuit, and in doing so became the first city in California to embrace innovative election rules that could point the way to a more representative politics.…
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Why Does the US Still Have So Few Women in Office?
By Steven Hill, The Nation, March 7, 2014
At the current rate of progress, it will take nearly 500 years for U.S. women to reach fair representation in government
With Hillary Clinton the early front-runner in the 2016 Democratic primary, the United States may join the UK, Germany, Brazil and Argentina as democracies that have had a woman as their top leader.…
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Divided we stand: The Polarizing of American Politics
by Steven Hill, National Civic Review, Winter 2005
Editor’s note: this article was first published in January 2006, but it’s sharp and incisive analysis of what is causing political polarization in Congress and in the US is more relevant than ever. In fact, it’s as if nothing has changed over the last eight years.…
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China’s investments in the US are growing. Should we be concerned?
By Steven Hill, The Guardian, January 24, 2014
A majority of Americans believe China poses the greatest threat to the US economy. Such fears are unwarranted
Leaked documents this week revealed what many already knew: Chinese investors are storing their money – and investing – more and more overseas. China’s rich and powerful seem to prefer the British Virgin Islands for their offshore transactions, but the US and Europe remain top destinations for their actual investments.…
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Chinese Investors Making Inroads in the US
By Steven Hill, China-US Focus, January 13, 2014
Over the holidays, I was in New York City and walked past One World Trade Center – the site of the 9/11 tragedy and now the location of a new soaring skyscraper that has been deemed the tallest building in the United States.…
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Elections experts worry that Egypt’s new elections will make the same mistake as last time
By Steven Hill, Daily News Egypt, December 18, 2013
Defective election method probably elected wrong candidate, Mohamed Morsi
Egypt is about to enter another period in which it will attempt to push past its political crisis through democratic elections. A 50 member committee recently drafted a new constitution, and a referendum will be held on January 14-15 as a first step toward holding new presidential and parliamentary elections in 2014.…
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A New Growth Bloc Against Germany’s Flawed Leadership
By Steven Hill, Social Europe Journal, December 17, 2013
What does the German Grand Coalition have to offer Europe? Not much.
I have been carefully reading and weighing all the commentary regarding Germany’s Große Koalition (or GroKo) agreement, and it’s clear that the coalition agreement can be read as a testament to the current state of German political and economic philosophy.…
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Sandy Hook, One Year Later: No Gun Control in Sight
By Steven Hill, In These Times, December 13, 2103
The NRA has taken keen advantage of our political system.
How quickly a year passes. One year ago, on Friday, December 14, Americans were jolted by yet another episode of gun-crazed carnage, at yet another school, this one in Newtown, Conn.…
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Did China’s Third Plenum Duck and Hide From Reality?
By Steven Hill, China-US Focus, November 29, 2013
Reviews of China’s Third Plenum continue to roll in, with some analysts saying that President Xi Jinping and his co-leaders have unwrapped China’s boldest set of economic and social reforms in nearly three decades, while others calling it a non-event that offered only vague promises of reform.…
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Now Abolish the Filibuster for Legislation, Too
By Steven Hill, The Atlantic, November 26, 2013
The nuclear option for nominees is a good start, but the damage done by blocked bills has been even worse.
Much of the commentary on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rolling back the filibuster for most presidential appointees has been celebratory, even euphoric.…
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President Obama: Incompetent or Liar?
By Steven Hill, In These Times, November 4, 2013
Without Snowden leaks, the president wouldn’t even know that the NSA spies on world leaders.
“What did he know, and when did he know it?” A firestorm is gathering under the Obama presidency that imperils its future. First there was the fiasco over his HealthCare.gov…
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Governing mag: Can Adopting Ranked-Choice Voting Make Politics Civil?
Governing, November 4, 2013
“One of the biggest is that it saves a ton of money,” said Steven Hill, the former director of the political reform program at the New America Foundation and a leader in the bid to expand ranked-choice voting to San Francisco in 2002. Cost, he said, can be especially problematic in cities that end up having to hold runoffs in both a primary and in a general election.…
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Obama Shouldn’t Lecture Xi About Surveillance
By Steven Hill, China-US Focus, November 1, 2013
President Barack Obama has been a vocal critic of China’s hacking into U.S. government and corporate computer systems, accusing the Chinese government of Orwellian tactics. But now President Obama is having to defend similar activity by his own government.
A firestorm is gathering under the Obama presidency over the latest revelation that the National Security Agency has been spying on the telephones of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and 34 other world leaders. …