World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

Zack Beauchamp has written a fascinating essay on the maps that help explain terrorism.  He begins with the French Revolution and works through the anarchists of the 19th-20th century and finally arrives at the contemporary period.  The essay is important since it shines a light on the terrorism that existed in Europe in the 1960s and 1970s–the tactic is hardly the exclusive preserve of non-Western groups.

The two main Spanish parties, the Popular Party and the Socialists, were sidelined in today’s elections as the far left Podemos Party and the Ciudadanos Party did much better than expected.  The Popular Party took the largest number of seats in the Parliament, but its natural ally, Cuidadanos, did not get enough seats to form a majority.  Nor did the Socialists and Podemos.  So there is no “natural” majority in the next Spanish government which means that there must be an alliance of uncomfortable partners.  That outcome almost invariably means a weak government.  The main lesson of the election, however, is that voters in Spain, like in many other countries in the world, continue to look beyond the mainstream for their political voice.

Slovenian voters turned down a proposal to legalize gay marriage.  The proposal was defeated by 63% of the voters.  Gay marriage had actually been approved by the Slovenian Parliament, but the referendum overturns the law.  There are 10 countries in Western Europe that allow gay marriage.  So far, none of the East European countries have legalized gay marriage.