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Oct 28, 2024 | 
tolerance.ca | Vladimir Bortun
By Vladimir Bortun, Lecturer in Politics, University of Oxford
While much of the intense media coverage of the UK government’s freebies scandal might be attributable to overzealous scrutiny by a predominantly right-of-centre printed press, there is at least one important issue at the heart of all this.
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Oct 28, 2024 | 
theconversation.com | Vladimir Bortun
While much of the intense media coverage of the UK government’s freebies scandal might be attributable to overzealous scrutiny by a predominantly right-of-centre printed press, there is at least one important issue at the heart of all this. It should be acknowledged that the gifts are in line with existing regulations – and also arguably less controversial than some of the donations received by members of former Conservative governments.
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Oct 28, 2024 | 
theconversation.com | Laura Hood |Rosie Campbell |Vladimir Bortun
After the 2024 election, the British parliament looks very different, with a large Labour majority for the first time in more than a decade. While we don’t yet have a full analysis of the socioeconomic background of the new crop of MPs, the Sutton Trust calculated that 23% were privately educated, a record low in almost 50 years of monitoring. Several cabinet ministers come from working-class backgrounds, including the prime minister, deputy prime minister and foreign secretary.
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Oct 28, 2024 | theconversation.com | Laura Hood |Rosie Campbell |Vladimir Bortun
After the 2024 election, the British parliament looks very different, with a large Labour majority for the first time in more than a decade. While we don’t yet have a full analysis of the socioeconomic background of the new crop of MPs, the Sutton Trust calculated that 23% were privately educated, a record low in almost 50 years of monitoring. Several cabinet ministers come from working-class backgrounds, including the prime minister, deputy prime minister and foreign secretary.
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Jul 27, 2024 | 
jacobin.com | Vladimir Bortun
It’s not hard to become disillusioned with academia in the age of late neoliberalism — especially if you are, like myself, an “early career” academic hopping from one temporary contract to another. The rat race of job and grant applications is exhausting and often demoralizing. Pressure builds to write as many papers as possible — only to give them away for free for the benefit of publishers’ obscene profits.
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Jul 2, 2024 | 
znetwork.org | Vladimir Bortun
At the core of the ongoing rise of far-right populists sits their claim to be on the side of the people and against the corrupt elites. That’s how they’ve managed to exploit the popular anger against mainstream parties across Europe — particularly in countries where the Left has failed to present itself as a credible alternative to the status quo. And they’re not only winning elections but also influencing the political mainstream along the way.
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Jul 1, 2024 | 
jacobin.com | Vladimir Bortun
At the core of the ongoing rise of far-right populists sits their claim to be on the side of the people and against the corrupt elites. That’s how they’ve managed to exploit the popular anger against mainstream parties across Europe — particularly in countries where the Left has failed to present itself as a credible alternative to the status quo. And they’re not only winning elections but also influencing the political mainstream along the way.
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Jun 27, 2024 | 
theconversation.com | Vladimir Bortun
Most people following British politics would probably know by now that Labour leader Keir Starmer’s father was a toolmaker. He has talked many times about his working-class background and the way it informs his politics. Starmer is not alone. Politicians from the other side of the political spectrum have also ramped up the rhetoric around their “blue collar” credentials in recent years.
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May 26, 2024 | 
transform-network.net | Vladimir Bortun |Karine Gantin
They say the best teacher of anti-capitalism is capitalism itself. Romania makes no exception. After more than three decades of unhinged neoliberalism, the country tops the table in Europe for most negative indicators: from income inequality to in-work poverty to labour migration to underfunding of vital public services. Inevitably, this has led to resurgence of left-wing and even anti-capitalist attitudes among the general public.
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May 22, 2024 | 
theloop.ecpr.eu | Vladimir Bortun
Last month, a group of scholars submitted an open letter to ECPR's Executive Committee, calling upon it to condemn the Israeli military campaign in Gaza. ECPR declined. This response, argues Vladimir Bortun, was misguided, but at the same time represents an opportunity to open up debate about the mission of ECPR – and, indeed, about the very purpose of political scienceOn 7 October 2023, Palestinian Hamas terrorists killed over 1,200 Israelis, and kidnapped more than 250 more.
