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A collection of 25 posts

Estonia saved its citizens 820 years by moving public services online

Estonia saved its citizens 820 years by moving public services online

Estonia is a small country with a population of only 1.3 million. In 2005, it became the first country in the world to allow its citizens to vote online in elections, and today 46.9% of those eligible opt to vote online. Almost everything in Estonia can now be

Corsica's 253 year struggle for self-rule

Corsica's 253 year struggle for self-rule

This year's prison attack on the Corsican nationalist Yvan Colonna reignited the discussion about Corsica's struggle for nationhood from France. Colonna, who died a few weeks after the attack, was found guilty of the 1998 assassination of Claude Erignac, a representative of the French state in Corsica. For many on

Interesting borders around the world

Interesting borders around the world

In a recent post [https://www.karlsnotes.com/how-to-start-your-own-country-in-four-steps/], I wrote about the importance of defined territory for the legitimacy of countries around the world. Sovereignty starts and ends within international borders - some marked by natural phenomena, such as rivers, mountains, forests or the sea, others are man-made, like

The 2022 General Election - Malta

The 2022 General Election - Malta

On 20th February 2022, Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela asked the President of the Republic to dissolve parliament, so that a general election can be held on 26th March.

An African Superstate: the East African Federation

Geopolitics Featured

An African Superstate: the East African Federation

The fastest growing region in Africa is also the site of an ongoing political experiment that aims, in the coming years, to have members of the East African Community band together and form the East African Federation - a single African superstate.

https://www.fugger.de/en/fuggerei/unparalleled-worldwide-for-500-years

Fuggerei: the world's first public housing

In 1521, a German merchant and banker called Jakob Fugger, known as 'the Rich', a descendant of the famous Fugger family of Augsburg [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburg], took it upon himself to fund and build the first social settlement in the world. Known as Fuggerei after its founders'

The towns built by Mussolini and their political legacy

The towns built by Mussolini and their political legacy

At the end of the 19th century, a Prussian officer had an idea to build a water collection system beneath the mountains in modern-day Latina Province, very close to Rome, Italy. The idea was to collect the water before this settles down and prevent it from stagnating in what are

Micro-level History

Micro-level History

I was recently having a conversation with a Spanish friend about the Spanish Civil War of the 1930’s. While I was interested in better understanding the bigger picture of this historical period – how the civil war was fought, who won or lost, how did it start and why, I

Challenges to creating a Network State

Challenges to creating a Network State

This is a review of the ‘How to Start a New Country’ [https://1729.com/how-to-start-a-new-country/] piece by Balaji S. Srinivasan, which highlights possible pathways to a country founded and built online, and later also owning physical territory. I call this ‘the Reverse Estonia’, as the country has been on

Maltese Political Parties' Share of Parliamentary Seats

Data Visualisations

Maltese Political Parties' Share of Parliamentary Seats

In a recent post [https://karlsnotes.com/first-count-votes-in-parliamentary-elections-in-malta-1921-2017/] , I visualised the number of first count votes received by Maltese political parties since the 1921 national election. This time, I created the above visualisation to show the composition of the Maltese Parliament immediately after every election for the same 1921-2017 period.

How to start your own country in four steps

How to start your own country in four steps

On 16th June 2014, Jeremiah Heaton declared 2,060km2 of arid land in Africa as the Kingdom of North Sudan, after promising his daughter that one day she would become a Princess. Heaton, a farmer from the US state of Virginia, had been looking for unclaimed territory around the world

How does a casual election work?

Data Visualisations

How does a casual election work?

General election candidates in Malta are allowed to contest in two different voting districts. If they are elected from both, they must resign from one of them and their seats are filled through a ‘casual election’ – ‘casual’ as in ‘not a regular thing’. Casual elections also happen when an MP

Do political stickers work?

Do political stickers work?

Go to any major European city and you’ll find dozens of stickers on road signs, bus stops and billboards. Each with a different message about the politics of a candidate, a political party or just a general pro or anti something message. I believe that in the US the

Monopoly: the board game

Monopoly: the board game

In 1903, Elizabeth Magie, a self-declared left-wing feminist, patented the Landlord’s Game, the forerunner of the now world-famous Monopoly board game. Today, Monopoly is more associated with capitalism than any left-wing ideology, but in the early years of the 20th century, the original goal of the game was not

A branding overhaul for Austria's ÖVP

A branding overhaul for Austria's ÖVP

In 2017, the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) had a slogan which said ‘Time for something new’, despite it having been in government for 30 years. That same year, its new leader Sebastian Kurz [https://twitter.com/sebastiankurz] rebranded the party as the ‘New People’s Party’ and changed its

Facebook of the 1940s

Facebook of the 1940s

While World War II was nearing its end, the practise of data gathering to sell products or services directly to the consumer, was already in existence in the US. Data for sale Specific data on someone’s lifestyle was gathered in a list according to different interests and was used

How did Keir Starmer win?

How did Keir Starmer win?

I recently wrote about the online campaigns of the three candidates for the leadership of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. Out of the three, Keir Starmer successfully clinched the nomination with the help of a formidable online campaign on Facebook and Instagram amongst other social media platforms. Keir

Towards a new country in Europe?

Towards a new country in Europe?

On Monday, Politico Europe released an article about the increasing sectarian discourse by Flemish nationalists about the future of Belgium. You can read the whole article here [https://www.politico.eu/article/belgium-coronavirus-the-flemish-independence-nationalist-exit-strategy/] , but the argument mainly centres on how COVID-19 has accelerated the need for “for a “confederalist” Belgium,

Burundi's 2020 election

Burundi's 2020 election

Burundians will be voting for the next President and their new Deputies at the National Assembly on 20th May 2020. This will be the first election without the current President since 2005, and is bound to be an interesting one to follow, not least due to the COVID-19 crisis, which

UK Labour Leadership election: the online campaign - Part 2

Data Visualisations

UK Labour Leadership election: the online campaign - Part 2

Back in February I had published a post regarding the social media following and number of ads promoted by the three contestants for leadership of the UK Labour Party, as well as a former contestant. The voting for the leader by members of the Labour Party, closed on 2nd April

Political campaigning in the time of Corona

Political campaigning in the time of Corona

The Novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has spread around the world at a phenomenal rate. Many institutions and private businesses have had to shutter down, white-collar workers started to work from home, and people in general have been left in a sense of disbelief at how a virus could

Deepfakes in an Indian election campaign

Deepfakes in an Indian election campaign

VICE [https://www.vice.com/en_in/article/jgedjb/the-first-use-of-deepfakes-in-indian-election-by-bjp] has recently reported that the president of India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharatiya_Janata_Party], used deepfake technology to change the language of his speech in a political advertisement. In the

Irish political dynasties

Irish political dynasties

A few days before the Irish election, both Politico.eu [https://www.politico.eu/article/healy-rae-kerry-political-dynasty-irish-election/] and The Guardian [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/02/meet-the-healy-raes-the-rural-irish-populists-who-have-never-lost-an-election] published an article on the Healy-Raes [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healy-Rae_family], a local political dynasty in County Kerry, Ireland. At

Ireland goes to vote today

Ireland goes to vote today

Can Sinn Féin be in government? [https://www.politico.eu/article/why-sinn-fein-is-surging-in-the-irish-election/] : Sinn Fein has moved from political pariah to potentially winning the greatest share of the votes in the Irish election, according to latest polls. While the party cannot achieve a majority of TD’s (MP’s), due to

Kiwis to vote in September 2020

Kiwis to vote in September 2020

Prime Minister of New Zealand and Leader of the Labour Party, Jacinda Ardern, has recently announced that the country will be holding general elections on 19th September 2020. This article [https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/23-01-2020/lets-do-this-again-whats-on-the-whiteboard-for-jacinda-ardern-and-labour/] gives a pretty good overview on what to expect from the Labour Party’