250
votes
Why do European cities have so many homeless and beggars despite its high-tax welfare system?
I also wondered why there are homeless people in my home-country Germany even though the social safety system is legally obligated to pay the rent for people who can not afford to do so. In this case, ...
- 72.4k
159
votes
Why is Greece's debt considered a problem but not US debt, which is much larger?
I know that the population of Greece is much less than in the U.S., however I do not think it matters to people "lending" money to the governments
This is where you are mistaken. The lender is ...
- 11.4k
96
votes
Seen from Europe, why is there a hard separation between Republicans and Democrats in the US?
The answer is First Past The Post. The nature of the voting system is such that many people who would rather support a 3rd Party feel compelled to vote against the party that they like the least, ...
- 5,785
83
votes
Why do European cities have so many homeless and beggars despite its high-tax welfare system?
The (homeless) beggars are likely to congregate where they are most visible and likely to be successful at begging. Their visibility to tourists probably depends more on how willing the police is ...
- 131k
80
votes
Are police in Western European countries right-wing or left-wing?
Speaking for Germany, officially they are bound to be neutral. Practically, they lean (heavily) right.
Looking at the anti-lockdown protests (which are indeed right to far-right), the police has been ...
- 34.8k
77
votes
Why do European cities have so many homeless and beggars despite its high-tax welfare system?
These answers are specifically for Sweden, which you mention in your question, but at least some of it may also apply in other countries:
You need to be a Swedish citizen or have a residence permit ...
- 1,651
74
votes
Seen from Europe, why is there a hard separation between Republicans and Democrats in the US?
American political parties are essentially standing coalitions that do their coalition building before elections instead of after
What is typical in Europe and other parts of the world is for a ...
- 15.6k
68
votes
Why do some European governments still consider price capping despite the fact that price caps lead to shortages?
First of all, this is one of the many situations where we have to remember that the Econ101-explanations are based on assumptions that are never going to be satisfied in reality. There rarely is an &...
- 11.3k
67
votes
Accepted
Why did the Islamic State target Brussels when Belgium isn't bombing them?
Because Pape doesn't know what he's talking about.
Islamic jihadist groups Boko Haram and Al Shabbab terrorize African communities in Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Somalia, Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and ...
- 850
67
votes
Accepted
Why don't the other countries of Europe maintain as massive a military as Russia does?
This is a great question about both politics and history. It relates directly to the changing nature of what a "country" is. First, let me directly answer your questions:
Given that France, ...
- 1,803
67
votes
Accepted
Why is Greece's debt considered a problem but not US debt, which is much larger?
It's going to be difficult to really choose a "best answer" here since to some extent the factors involved, and especially which ones are "most important" is going to be a matter of opinion. And this ...
- 1,620
65
votes
Accepted
Why do some (North Americans) consider Europe socialist?
The Word Has Become Political Shorthand
The Pew Research Center examined how people in the United States were using the word and what they meant by it. Regardless of the term's academic definition, ...
- 16.4k
63
votes
Accepted
Did Poland ever apologize for its alliance with Germany before 1939?
Yes, in September 2009, at an occasion to mark the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of WWII, then-President Lech Kaczyński gave the following speech:
Two generations have passed but the Second ...
CDJB♦
- 97.1k
56
votes
Are police in Western European countries right-wing or left-wing?
For France, the topic has covered been by a fact-checking article of a (left-leaning) newspaper, called Libération, published in 2018.
If you can read French, and if you know who the main figures of ...
- 1,041
55
votes
Do European politicians typically put their pronouns on their social media pages?
Do European politicians typically do this too
(Emphasis mine)
Politicians who sport a pronoun in their profile are not typical in the US. I'm struggling to imagine how they might be more common in ...
- 30.5k
54
votes
Why do European cities have so many homeless and beggars despite its high-tax welfare system?
Homeless vs. Beggars
Homeless people aren't very visible. Police chase them away from the places where tourists might see them. They end up somewhere hidden.
Beggars on the other hand, are very ...
- 1,541
53
votes
Accepted
Why do white supremacists use the term "Anglo Saxon values"?
The notion of 'Anglo-Saxon values' goes back to the days of British colonialism. One of the more common justifications of colonialism was that the British (Anglo-Saxon) culture was the pinnacle of ...
- 60.5k
49
votes
Accepted
Why did Arab spring and Iranian green revolution fail, but the European revolutions didn't?
History and Politics rarely accommodate with clear binary outcome. So, as much I would not say that the Arab Spring revolutions weren't a failure as a whole, I would also not say that the European ...
- 1,738
49
votes
Why don't the other countries of Europe maintain as massive a military as Russia does?
It is impossible to understand Russia's preoccupation over seven decades with military power without understanding the country's experience in WW2.
The war had a huge impact on the national psyche ...
- 10.6k
49
votes
Why would Putin or Russia benefit from a weak EU or weak EU countries?
There is currently a power-play going on between the EU and Russia concerning the political influence over the countries between them.
The most visible struggle is certainly the Ukraine conflict. But ...
- 72.4k
48
votes
Why do some European countries provide free higher education to foreigners?
There are at least three benefits:
Influence: Some students will go on to become their country's elite and will stay in a touch with the network they build in university.
Expanding the workforce: ...
- 30.2k
47
votes
Accepted
Why are the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark among the countries with the largest wealth gaps in the world?
There's an interesting, if long, paper on that topic. The paper specifically focuses on the Netherlands, but a lot of the arguments are applicable to other modern welfare countries. The authors ...
47
votes
What are the benefits for strong economies like Germany and France for being members of the European Union?
The main one is exporting without barriers to these other EU countries, in terms of [no] tariffs and [no] non-tariff barriers (thanks to unified product standards), and also lack of competitive ...
- 131k
47
votes
Why do some European governments still consider price capping despite the fact that price caps lead to shortages?
You may be confused by the economics definition of a "shortage", which is when "the quantity demanded exceeds the quantity supplied" which means people would like to spend more ...
- 1,868
46
votes
In general, do European right wing parties oppose abortion?
Not in general. For example the Conservative party in the UK made no mention of it in their last election Manifesto, implying that they support the status quo (abortion permitted with the approval of ...
- 108k
44
votes
What are the benefits for strong economies like Germany and France for being members of the European Union?
You have to remember that the EU's immediate precursor was initially specifically set up to ensure that France and Germany would not enter into another war against each other.
Also, even a strong ...
43
votes
Why did the Islamic State target Brussels when Belgium isn't bombing them?
First of all, ISIS claims that "killing kafirs is always good".
Official ISIS Announcement on Brussels Attacks
First we want to make it clear to all that what makes the kafir’s blood permissiable ...
- 2,302
43
votes
Why are some microstates not members of the European Union (EU)?
Different explanations for different microstates:
The Vatican would not meet EU requirements on democracy.
Andorra uses tax and duty differences to attract tourists. The EU would benefit from closing ...
- 100k
42
votes
Why would Putin or Russia benefit from a weak EU or weak EU countries?
This is really pretty simple. Putin does not want a neighbor on his western border that is far stronger than Russia.
Russia is a country of about 140 million people, and an economy about the size of ...
- 13.4k
42
votes
Accepted
What, if any, groups of pro-Russian separatists are in East-European countries?
Moldova (which borders Ukraine to the West) definitely has them. They have a self-declared republic there too, Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), better known as Transnistria in the West.
It's ...
- 131k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible