The aim of this paper is threefold. First, it presents the key characteristics of the Greek elections of 6 May and the corresponding campaign, highlighting the main trends, winners and losers in their context. Second, it discusses Greece’s future in the Eurozone, on the basis of the experience of the pre-crisis period, the handling of the ongoing crisis, political and policy developments at the...

Political debate over medical malpractice reform seldom takes meaningful account of its policy context, including the emerging science of patient safety. Instead, stakeholders on both sides use the rhetoric of patient safety to support entrenched positions on hardened proposals such as capping damages and limiting access to information about errors. Despite its déjà vu quality, the current malp...

There is considerable controversy over why sluggish economic growth persists across many advanced economies six years after the onset of the financial crisis. Theories include a secular deficiency in aggregate demand, slowing innovation, adverse demographics, lingering policy uncertainty, post-crisis political fractionalisation, debt overhang, insufficient fiscal stimulus, excessive financial r...

No one seriously concerned with political strategies in the current situation can now afford to ignore the "swing to the Right". We may not yet understand its extent and its limits, its specific character, its causes and effects. We have so far—with one or two notable exceptions—failed to find strategies capable of mobilizing social forces strong enough in depth to turn its flank. But the tende...

Between 2001 and 2009, the area of Naples, South Italy, repeatedly hit the headlines of national and international media due to the waste management crisis that on many occasions filled up the streets of the region with huge piles of waste. What soon emerged as the main bone of contention concerned the connections between the population's health and the presence of dumps on the territory. What ...

Greece's economic crisis has deepened since it was bailed out by the international community in 2010. The country underwent the sixth consecutive year of economic contraction in 2013, with its economy shrinking by 20% between 2008 and 2012, and anaemic or no growth projected for 2014. Unemployment has more than tripled, from 7·7% in 2008 to 24·3% in 2012, and long-term unemployment reached 14·4...

The collapse of the Soviet Bloc caused devastating economic crises in Cuba and in the Russian Federation but triggered remarkably different public health responses: while mortality rates in Russia increased substantially the crisis was barely visible in Cuban public health statistics. Fundamental social, political and cultural differences in the two countries and the respective specificities of...

The authors discuss the idea of crisis as something regular and systematic in the capitalist system, situating moments of acute crisis as an inherent part of the political struggle. With a historical perspective, they seek to demonstrate that the transformations and the advances achieved in the culture of rights are still very recent and unconsolidated. They argue that the strengthening of indi...

The Eurozone crisis constitutes a grave challenge to European integration. This article presents an overview of the causes of the crisis and analyzes why has it been so difficult to resolve. We focus on how responses to the crisis were shaped by distributive conflicts both among and within countries. On the international level, debtor and creditor countries have fought over the distribution of ...