The post-war promise that markets would sustain democracy has collapsed into a system of concentrated wealth, eroded trust, and geopolitical fragmentation. The world is living through a rupture, not another political cycle. The assumptions that guided Western politics since 1945 – that capitalism and democracy reinforce one another, that globalisation is irreversible, that rules restrain […]| Democracy Challenged
⏱️ Reading time: about 8 minutes – a quick deep dive into how “creative destruction” has evolved into “creative accumulation.” Philippe Aghion, together with Joel Mokyr and Peter Howitt, won the Nobel prize in economics 2025. In their research, the laureates show that growth results almost entirely from technological progress. For them, innovation is the […]| Democracy Challenged
I am currently a Senior Researcher Fellow at the University College Dublin, School of Politics and International Relations on the Democracy Challenged Project funded by the ERC. Prior to this, I was a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with the "Théorie Économique, Modélisation et Applications" (THEMA) laboratory at the CY Cergy Paris Université CNRS. Additionally, I am a research fellow at the World Inequality Lab in Paris. I earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the Paris School of Economics...| Democracy Challenged
with Oscar Barrera-Rodriguez In 2025, Forbes counted 3,068 billionaires controlling a combined fortune of $17 trillion — more than the total output of the five largest economies in Wester…| Democracy Challenged
Debates about inequality often revolve around wealth taxes. The argument runs that if the top 1% hoard an ever-larger share of global wealth, then the way to fund a social state is to skim a portion of that fortune back. The Piketty-Zucman turn has put household balance sheets at the centre of distributional politics. But […]| Democracy Challenged
Capitalism in the twenty-first century runs on intangibles: patents, software code, algorithms, brands. Yet what really matters is not the ideas themselves, but how they are recorded in the books. …| Democracy Challenged
The EU–US trade truce leaves generics untouched but puts branded drugs—the core of Ireland’s export engine—at risk, with multinationals ready to shift production and tweak transfer pricing to protect profits. The EU–US trade framework announced on 21 August was pitched as a breakthrough in calming transatlantic tensions. Europe will sweep away tariffs on American industrial […]| Democracy Challenged
The age of neoliberal hands-off economics is giving way to state-led tech geopolitics. For decades, neoliberal orthodoxy insisted that governments should stay out of the business of building indust…| Democracy Challenged
The US corporate landscape has morphed into a winner-takes-all economy, where a handful of multinational firms control the lion’s share of profits and market power. The data is stark. Across all US…| Democracy Challenged
In June 2025 the G7 quietly unraveled one of the boldest tax reforms ever attempted. The OECD global minimum tax was designed to curb profit shifting. A single clause now exempts United States mult…| Democracy Challenged
As the world’s richest guests descend on Venice for Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s lavish wedding, the scene is already drawing protest. And rightly so. Behind the €40 million party, the security …| Democracy Challenged
