The Dance of European Integration: How Ideology and Policy Shape Support for the EU

What explains support for European Integration? Why did people on the Left oppose, and Right support, European Integration in the 1980s, but this pattern reverse in the 2020s? In contrast to the common account of European Integration as a new ‘cleavage’ in European politics, on a par with class, religion, and geography, we argue that citizens evaluate European Integration by what it has on offer for them. If Europe offers them a policy-bundle in line with their own (left-right) preferences, they support it. If not, they are opposed.

Fiscal Policy Preferences with Tax, Spending and Borrowing Trade-offs

It is a common complaint about public attitudes towards fiscal policy that voters want something for nothing, or that they want "Scandinavian levels of spending and American levels of taxation". However, these results typically come from survey questions which make expressing these views entirely possible, rather than asking respondents to internalise the relevant trade-offs. Recent research has begun to move in this direction by building in trade-offs with taxes when asking about spending proposals, as well as considering the necessary tax or spending consequences of deficit reduction.

What is Nationalism?

Nationalism is something that the more one reads about it, the less sure one is of what it is. This talk recounts an intellectual outsider—one working on signalling theory and crisis-management experimentation—travelling through and pondering over the landscape of nationalism research. How many types of nationalism exist? Which types are theoretically valid and which are arbitrary? How can we tell? Is nationalism forever to be a contested concept, or can social science evolve it into an “uncontested”—or “less contested”—concept?

The No State Solution: A Jewish Manifesto

Today there are two seemingly mutually exclusive notions of what 'the Jews' are: either a religion or a nation/ethnicity. The widespread conception is that the Jews were formerly either a religious community in exile or a nation based on Jewish ethnicity. The latter position is commonly known as 'Zionism,' and all articulations of a political theory of Zionism are taken to be variations of that view.

Ming Kit Wong

I am a DPhil student in Political Theory focusing on anti-utopian liberal thought. My doctoral project is supervised by Professor David Leopold, and it is jointly funded by Magdalen College and the DPIR.

I have remained at Oxford to pursue the DPhil after completing the MSc in Political Theory Research under the supervision of Professor Teresa Bejan. I additionally hold an MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History from Cambridge, where I first read History as an undergraduate.

Career Paths in International Development: UN Civil Service

The Oxford University United Nations Association (OXUNA) and the Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR) offer an opportunity to hear from members of the British Association of Former UN Civil Servants (BAFUNCS) about their experiences and the prospects for careers with the United Nations.

Stephen Rudgard is with the Food and Agriculture Organisation as their Senior Expert in UN Collaboration. He plans and supports coordination meetings between the Senior Management of three UN organizations involved with agriculture and food.
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