Today, the U.S. spends less than 2 percent of its GDP on infrastructure, less than at any point in the last twenty years. Meanwhile, Europe spends close to twice the U.S. rate, and China spends close to four times the U.S. rate.  The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report now ranks the U.S. overall infrastructure at 12th in the world – down from 7th place just a decade ago.

General Coverage

Monitoring for general coverage should result in a document providing accurate information focused on

• the content (positions, political bias or options context)
• the process (steps, deadlines) and
• the actors (institutions, decision-makers, stakeholders)

Tools

Heads of state and government

Current

• Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary 

Former

• Edgar Savisaar, Estonian politician, Member of Parliament, former Mayor of  Tallinn, former Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications, former Minister of the Interior, former acting Prime Minister, and leader of the Estonian Centre Party.

National ministers and secretaries

Author : Lee Drutman, a Senior Fellow at New America and the author of  The Business of America is Lobbying: How Corporations Became Poloticized and Politics Became More Corporate.

Original Text has been edited.

Traditional political coalition building and victories are not sufficient to bring about immediate results in the European context. Even a political force with a clear cut majority in the EP cannot be certain of delivering completely on its manifesto commitments, due to the inter-institutional dimension of the EU. Even a winning force, with a significant majority in the EP, would further need to convince: the policy-makers within the different institutions; the Commission; and the majority of Member States in the Council.

Figures are in billion U.S.$

1. China: 343
2. Germany: 74
3. Japan: 67
4. Canada: 35
5. Mexico: 54
6. Saudi Arabia: 28
7. Ireland: 26
8. Italy: 25
9. South Korea: 25
10. India: 23
11. Malaysia: 17
12. France: 16
13. Thailand: 15
14. Taiwan: 14
15. Switzerland: 9

Edited from an Article written by Janice Crouse, former presidential speechwriter for Bush41

Authors: Thierry Chapin, Head of Research of the Robert Schuman Foundation, Associate Fellow at the CERI-Sciences Po and Visiting Fellow at European Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LES); Jean-François Jamet, Lectuer on European and international economic policy at Sciences Po.

Basically the Brexit will lead to rethinking the manner in which the ‘two Europes’, i.e. the euro zone and the single market, will work together.

1. The primary dividing line of this election is globalization, specifically neoliberal globalization, and more specifically the plight of the working class in the wake of free trade. Trump very explicitly rejects free-trade globalization and its many transnational practices, protocols and treaties, Trump’s claim is that while neoliberal globalization has generated unprecedented quantities of money wealth, the lion’s share of that wealth has gone to a few rich thereby immensely widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots.