Latest news with #BerggruenGovernanceIndex
Winnipeg Free Press
25-04-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Australia needs a complex economy ‘to ensure future growth and reduce vulnerability to foreign powers,' report says
Los Angeles (DNA) – Australia boasts some of the world's most sophisticated political institutions and one of its wealthiest economies. But a 'ticking time bomb' of overreliance on extractive industries must be addressed under Australia's next government, a new report recommends. The country's current development is resulting in 'rising political polarization, deepening inequality and heightening exposure to the deeper geopolitical tensions emerging between the U.S. and China,' according to an Australia BGI Report on the country's governance performance, released eight days before the May 3 election. Based on the Berggruen Governance Index (BGI), the report was conducted by researchers from the Los Angeles-based Berggruen Institute think tank, the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Hertie School, a German university. According to the report, Australia has long benefited from favourable economic, geopolitical and demographic conditions, scoring highly on almost all governance measures in the BGI. But cracks are starting to show. Eroding public trust in government is providing 'the backdrop for a hotly contested federal election,' during which the centre-left Labor Party is seeking to defend its majority against the centre-right Liberals. While the Labor Party was previously projected to lose after a lacklustre post-pandemic economic recovery, it has recently risen in the polls — a reversal mirroring a similar trend in Canada, in which U.S. President Donald Trump has amplified negative associations with conservatism. Now, the Australian Labor Party is projected to win by a slim margin. However, the stresses that have plagued the Labor Party 'will persist regardless of who prevails in May,' said the Australia BGI Report. Despite ranking 9th globally in GDP per capita, Australia ranks only 99th worldwide in the Economic Complexity Index (ECI). 'Its reliance on extractive industries has reduced the incentive to diversify and weakened other parts of the economy,' said the report. Iron ore, coal, petroleum, gold, and other minerals comprise the five largest products sold abroad, accounting for more than half of all exports. Instead of moving away from this reliance, 'Australia has in many ways doubled down.' And one of its biggest customers is China. During Elections Get campaign news, insight, analysis and commentary delivered to your inbox during Canada's 2025 election. While Australia is increasingly economically dependent on China, it's also long relied on the U.S. security guarantee. In the context of a growing U.S.-China rivalry, this puts Australia in a precarious position. Only with a more complex economy, the report said, 'can Australia ensure future growth and reduce vulnerability to foreign powers like China and the U.S.' ———————————————- This text and the accompanying material (photos and graphics) are an offer from the Democracy News Alliance, a close co-operation between Agence France-Presse (AFP, France), Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA, Italy), The Canadian Press (CP, Canada), Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa, Germany) and PA Media (PA, UK). All recipients can use this material without the need for a separate subscription agreement with one or more of the participating agencies. This includes the recipient's right to publish the material in own products. The DNA content is an independent journalistic service that operates separately from the other services of the participating agencies. It is produced by editorial units that are not involved in the production of the agencies' main news services. Nevertheless, the editorial standards of the agencies and their assurance of completely independent, impartial and unbiased reporting also apply here.
Winnipeg Free Press
24-04-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Australia's next government must mend structural cracks appearing in its political, economic and social foundation, report finds
Los Angeles/DNA – Australia boasts some of the world's most sophisticated political institutions and one of its wealthiest economies. But this veneer of success masks deeper structural issues — and a 'ticking time bomb' of overreliance on extractive industries must be addressed under Australia's next government, a new report recommends. Cracks have begun to show in the country's façade of optimism, prosperity and progress, according to an Australia BGI Report on the country's governance performance, released eight days before the May 3 election. According to the report, the country's economy continues to rely heavily on environmentally harmful extractive industries, while economic centralization in only a handful of cities has driven up housing costs. Racial tensions, including the displacement of Indigenous populations, remain unresolved. This is resulting in 'rising political polarization, deepening inequality and heightening exposure to the deeper geopolitical tensions emerging between the U.S. and China,' said the report. Based on the Berggruen Governance Index (BGI), the report was conducted by researchers from the Los Angeles-based Berggruen Institute think tank, the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Hertie School, a German university. According to the report, Australia has long benefited from favourable economic, geopolitical and demographic conditions. Its cities are ranked as some of the most livable in the world and it scores highly on almost all governance measures in the BGI, which analyzes the relationship between democratic accountability, state capacity and the provision of public goods. But the country isn't exempt from the same challenges to democracy, prosperity and social cohesion that similar countries are facing, according to the report. Eroding public trust in government is providing 'the backdrop for a hotly contested federal election,' during which the centre-left Labor Party under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is seeking to defend its majority against Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and the centre-right Liberals. While the Labor Party was previously projected to lose after a lacklustre post-pandemic economic recovery, it has recently risen in the polls — a reversal mirroring a similar trend in Canada, in which U.S. President Donald Trump has amplified negative associations with conservatism. Now, the Australian Labor Party is projected to win by a slim margin. Another factor influencing the election is rental affordability, which reached its worst level on record in 2025, according to the REA Group, a company in the real estate industry. This trend is pushing younger voters toward the Australian Green Party, which has made reform on the housing market a central part of its policy agenda, the Australia BGI Report said. However, in the 2022 election, 12 per cent of the national vote translated into just 2.5 per cent of seats for the Greens — a pattern that 'could repeat itself in 2025 due to the country's preferential voting system.' Australia's electoral system uses a preferential voting system rather than the 'first-past-the-post' method common in many other Anglophone democracies, which conceals a 'darker history of Indigenous dispossession and racial discrimination.' It's also one of only 22 countries in the world that require citizens to vote. However, the stresses that have plagued Albanese's government 'will persist regardless of who prevails in May,' said the BGI report. Australia generally resembles wealthy Western European and North American countries on the 2024 Berggruen Governance Index, scoring highly on democratic accountability. It's ranked as one of only 25 'full democracies' by the Economist Intelligence Unit. But, despite ranking 9th globally in GDP per capita, Australia ranks only 99th worldwide in the Economic Complexity Index (ECI). 'Although Australia is blessed with bountiful natural resources, its political economy is also constrained by this very endowment,' said the Australia BGI Report. 'Its reliance on extractive industries has reduced the incentive to diversify and weakened other parts of the economy.' Iron ore, coal, petroleum, gold and other minerals comprise the five largest products sold abroad, accounting for more than half of all exports. Instead of moving away from this reliance, 'Australia has in many ways doubled down,' said the report. Australia is the world's largest coal exporter and accounts for more than half of the world's lithium, with most of it going to China for battery manufacturing. Therein lies another issue. While Australia is increasingly economically dependent on China, it's also long relied on the U.S. security guarantee. In the context of a growing U.S.-China rivalry, this puts Australia in a precarious position, said the report, being 'economically tethered to one superpower, while militarily aligned with another.' During Elections Get campaign news, insight, analysis and commentary delivered to your inbox during Canada's 2025 election. To move past these problems, Australia will have to 'leverage its impressive state capacity and strong educational system to develop a more advanced services sector and more complex manufacturing,' said the Australia BGI Report. The next government will need to focus on the 'domestic essentials of growth' such as housing market reforms, as well as building economic complexity, to ensure internal and external stability, the report's researchers conclude. Only with a more complex economy 'can Australia ensure future growth and reduce vulnerability to foreign powers like China and the U.S.' ———————————————- This text and the accompanying material (photos and graphics) are an offer from the Democracy News Alliance, a close co-operation between Agence France-Presse (AFP, France), Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA, Italy), The Canadian Press (CP, Canada), Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa, Germany) and PA Media (PA, UK). All recipients can use this material without the need for a separate subscription agreement with one or more of the participating agencies. This includes the recipient's right to publish the material in own products. The DNA content is an independent journalistic service that operates separately from the other services of the participating agencies. It is produced by editorial units that are not involved in the production of the agencies' main news services. Nevertheless, the editorial standards of the agencies and their assurance of completely independent, impartial and unbiased reporting also apply here.
Zawya
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Zawya
Germany "rested on its laurels" too long, report finds
LOS ANGELES, USA - Newsaktuell - 31 January 2025 - High levels of governance have masked a slow decline in Germany, with political, economic, and social fractures "festering over years", a new scientific report released only weeks ahead of the February 23 parliamentary elections concludes. "It has become clear that Germany rested on its laurels for far too long", the BGI Germany Report on the country's governance performance says. It is based on the Berggruen Governance Index (BGI) and was conducted by researchers from the Los Angeles-based Berggruen Institute think tank, the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and the Hertie School, a German university. In their report " Germany 2025 - Slow decline in governance performance erupts into crisis of government as geopolitics worsen" the researchers conclude that the country's government and administrative systems have appeared increasingly sclerotic and hesitant to adopt necessary changes. Effective, often painful reforms are urgently needed, but political and economic constraints make them difficult to implement, the researchers write. The 2024 BGI measures democratic accountability, delivery of public goods and state capacity on a scale from 0 to 100. It analyses the years from 2000 to 2021. According to the report, Germany has lost ground on all three measures, with structural problems festering since the "deceptively benign" years of the chancellorship of Angela Merkel (2005-2021). The Democracy Accountability Index score, for example, slid to 93 in 2021 from a near perfect 99 at the beginning of the century. The data "suggests that some of Germany's state capacity and democratic accountability challenges were masked by economic growth, driven by the success of its export-oriented model during the 2010s", the report says. Chief among Germany's challenges are economic troubles that have worsened in recent years, largely stemming from a lack of public investment during that period in areas such as digitalization and transport infrastructure. On February 23, Germans go to the polls early after the ruling three-party coalition consisting of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) collapsed in November. Intra-government fighting over how to get the country's ailing economy back on track was a main factor of the break-up. At the same time, social trust is declining in Europe's largest economy. However, a possible new government under the conservative CDU/CSU alliance and its candidate for the chancellorship, Friedrich Merz, seems poised to exacerbate divisions rather than resolving them, the researchers say. The economic difficulties heighten uncertainty and discontent, the report argues – with migration emerging as the other major flashpoint. Rhetoric on economic scarcity is used to highlight tensions over migration, which are exploited by both the extreme right and left. That debate has been exacerbated by a recent deadly stabbing in which a migrant facing deportation from Germany is the main suspect. Yet immigration is essential to Germany's future growth, the BGI report says: "Any future government will have to attempt to reconcile anti-immigrant attitudes with the social reality of integration and the economic necessity of attracting foreign-born workers." Merz is promising a hard line on migration in case of an election victory. Despite provoking outrage from other political parties, Merz on Wednesday (January 29) pushed through a vote in parliament on proposals for tightening immigration controls. "Current asylum and immigration policy jeopardizes the security of the people and the confidence of all of society in the state," the text of the motion by the CDU/CSU says. The passed proposal includes a request to the German government to turn back asylum seekers at Germany's borders. But even more incendiary in German politics has been Merz's willingness to break long-standing taboos and use votes from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in order to pass the motion. All long-established parties in the lower house of the German parliament, the Bundestag, had previously said they would not work with the AfD, with many Germans alarmed at the rise of the party in recent years in a country still scarred by its Nazi past. According to the latest opinion polls by the five major polling institutes, the conservative CDU/CSU is clearly in the lead, polling at between 28 and 34 per cent. Second comes the AfD with 19 to 21 per cent, followed by the SPD with 15 to 19 per cent. The current German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is a member of the SPD. The Greens are at 12 to 15 per cent in the opinion polls, while the FDP this time may not clear the 5-per-cent-threshold necessary to enter the Bundestag. ---------------------------------------------- This text and the accompanying material (photos and graphics) are an offer from the Democracy News Alliance, a close co-operation between Agence France-Presse (AFP, France), Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA, Italy), The Canadian Press (CP, Canada), Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa, Germany) and PA Media (PA, UK). All recipients can use this material without the need for a separate subscription agreement with one or more of the participating agencies. This includes the recipient's right to publish the material in own products. The DNA content is an independent journalistic service that operates separately from the other services of the participating agencies. It is produced by editorial units that are not involved in the production of the agencies' main news services. Nevertheless, the editorial standards of the agencies and their assurance of completely independent, impartial and unbiased reporting also apply here. Further coverage by the Democracy News Alliance can be found in the DNA digital newsroom at Hashtag: #DNA The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Democracy News Alliance
Associated Press
31-01-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Germany 'rested on its laurels' too long, report finds
High levels of governance have masked a slow decline in Germany, with political, economic, and social fractures 'festering over years', a new scientific report released only weeks ahead of the February 23 parliamentary elections concludes. 'It has become clear that Germany rested on its laurels for far too long', the BGI Germany Report on the country's governance performance says. It is based on the Berggruen Governance Index (BGI) and was conducted by researchers from the Los Angeles-based Berggruen Institute think tank, the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and the Hertie School, a German university. In their report ' Germany 2025 - Slow decline in governance performance erupts into crisis of government as geopolitics worsen ' the researchers conclude that the country's government and administrative systems have appeared increasingly sclerotic and hesitant to adopt necessary changes. Effective, often painful reforms are urgently needed, but political and economic constraints make them difficult to implement, the researchers write. The 2024 BGI measures democratic accountability, delivery of public goods and state capacity on a scale from 0 to 100. It analyses the years from 2000 to 2021. According to the report, Germany has lost ground on all three measures, with structural problems festering since the 'deceptively benign' years of the chancellorship of Angela Merkel (2005-2021). The Democracy Accountability Index score, for example, slid to 93 in 2021 from a near perfect 99 at the beginning of the century. The data 'suggests that some of Germany's state capacity and democratic accountability challenges were masked by economic growth, driven by the success of its export-oriented model during the 2010s', the report says. Chief among Germany's challenges are economic troubles that have worsened in recent years, largely stemming from a lack of public investment during that period in areas such as digitalization and transport infrastructure. On February 23, Germans go to the polls early after the ruling three-party coalition consisting of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) collapsed in November. Intra-government fighting over how to get the country's ailing economy back on track was a main factor of the break-up. At the same time, social trust is declining in Europe's largest economy. However, a possible new government under the conservative CDU/CSU alliance and its candidate for the chancellorship, Friedrich Merz, seems poised to exacerbate divisions rather than resolving them, the researchers say. The economic difficulties heighten uncertainty and discontent, the report argues – with migration emerging as the other major flashpoint. Rhetoric on economic scarcity is used to highlight tensions over migration, which are exploited by both the extreme right and left. That debate has been exacerbated by a recent deadly stabbing in which a migrant facing deportation from Germany is the main suspect. Yet immigration is essential to Germany's future growth, the BGI report says: 'Any future government will have to attempt to reconcile anti-immigrant attitudes with the social reality of integration and the economic necessity of attracting foreign-born workers.' Merz is promising a hard line on migration in case of an election victory. Despite provoking outrage from other political parties, Merz on Wednesday (January 29) pushed through a vote in parliament on proposals for tightening immigration controls. 'Current asylum and immigration policy jeopardizes the security of the people and the confidence of all of society in the state,' the text of the motion by the CDU/CSU says. The passed proposal includes a request to the German government to turn back asylum seekers at Germany's borders. But even more incendiary in German politics has been Merz's willingness to break long-standing taboos and use votes from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in order to pass the motion. All long-established parties in the lower house of the German parliament, the Bundestag, had previously said they would not work with the AfD, with many Germans alarmed at the rise of the party in recent years in a country still scarred by its Nazi past. According to the latest opinion polls by the five major polling institutes, the conservative CDU/CSU is clearly in the lead, polling at between 28 and 34 per cent. Second comes the AfD with 19 to 21 per cent, followed by the SPD with 15 to 19 per cent. The current German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is a member of the SPD. The Greens are at 12 to 15 per cent in the opinion polls, while the FDP this time may not clear the 5-per-cent-threshold necessary to enter the Bundestag. ---------------------------------------------- This text and the accompanying material (photos and graphics) are an offer from the Democracy News Alliance, a close co-operation between Agence France-Presse (AFP, France), Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA, Italy), The Canadian Press (CP, Canada), Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa, Germany) and PA Media (PA, UK). All recipients can use this material without the need for a separate subscription agreement with one or more of the participating agencies. This includes the recipient's right to publish the material in own products. The DNA content is an independent journalistic service that operates separately from the other services of the participating agencies. It is produced by editorial units that are not involved in the production of the agencies' main news services. Nevertheless, the editorial standards of the agencies and their assurance of completely independent, impartial and unbiased reporting also apply here.
