Knowledge base of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium

Opinion

7/5/22, 2:48 PM

MCC GeoPod: Afghanistan - One year after the withdrawal of Western troops

How can Afghanistan be seen a year after the Taliban took power?
5/30/22, 10:13 AM

The Decline and Fall of the World Expo

March 31st marked the end of the World Expo in Dubai. Officially the Expo 2020, the celebration was postponed due to Covid and couldn’t debut until October of last year.
5/16/22, 9:52 AM

An IPhone or a Poket in My Hand

The other day a friend took me to a vending machine selling pocket books.
5/13/22, 8:01 AM

Can we trust public opinion polls?

Public opinion polls are an important part of social research. They are actively used in social science, politics, and business. But can we perceive the outcomes of these polls as an indicator of the real moods and desires of society?
5/10/22, 2:16 PM

Ukraine, cyberwarfare and Anonymous: who is a (legitimate) target and who is neutral?

While Anonymous has declared to be “in cyber war” against Russia, each individual acting as Anonymous can become a legitimate target under international humanitarian law, also triggering co-belligerency status of countries from which they operate.
5/3/22, 10:29 AM

Ireland’s journey to the 15% corporate tax

For many years Ireland has been famous for its corporate tax rate of 12.5%, which has attracted numerous companies to move their headquarters to the beautiful country.
4/25/22, 7:33 PM

The Role of Commitment in Business Decisions

Before the first prototype of A380 aircraft was unveiled, Airbus had already secured more than 100 orders of A380.
4/20/22, 2:56 PM

Artificial versus Human Agency

Since the Dartmouth Workshop of 1956, when the term “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) was coined, the field has experienced exponential development. Dreams of building machines capable of imitating, replicating or even surpassing human intelligence have been present throughout history.
4/13/22, 10:22 AM

The Great Resignation at Amazon: Employees’ Burnout and Leadership Strategies

Work-life balance is among the most heated and contentious leadership debates.
4/12/22, 9:14 AM

Human beings of the 21st century: objects or subjects?

Transhumanism, bioconservatism, eternal life and cyborgs. Are these sci-fi, conspiracy theories or the alarming present? Miklos Lukacs de Pereny, Visiting Fellow at MCC provided possible answers.
4/6/22, 8:00 AM

An outlook of the housing market in Ireland

As most developed countries, Ireland was strongly affected by the global financial crisis and needed many years in order to recover from the economic downturn starting in 2007.
4/4/22, 8:00 AM

A Leader’s Sense of Timing

In an interview, Sir Edmund Hillary, who was the first to climb Mount Everest, commented on one of the central qualities of a leader: “There are some people who are natural leaders, who have the ability to think quickly or choose the right decisions at the right moment. But I think there are an awful lot of us who have to learn how to be a leader, and in actual fact, I believe that most people, if they really want to, can become competent leaders.”
4/1/22, 8:00 AM
Author: Huub Ruël

Hungary’s bad press in Western Europe: How Hungary can Help Bridge West and East

Hungary gets bad press in many Western European countries. According to the UK’s The Guardian newspaper, for example, the Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán is an autocrat who is suppressing minorities and is corrupt. The Economist even considers Hungary an elected autocracy! Dutch mainstream news outlets almost always write about Hungary with a rather negative slant, democracy in danger.
3/28/22, 1:28 PM

The importance of digital hygiene in the contemporary world

The term "digital hygiene" is becoming more and more popular and widespread in the practice of sociological research.
3/25/22, 7:47 AM
Author: Huub Ruël

Profit and common good: friends or foes?

Crisis situations such as the current war in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic and the global challenges such as wealth inequality and climate change put the finger on the question: what is the role of business in societies? Is it to make profit and in this way to serve society with goods and services?
3/22/22, 2:01 PM

Bosnia is still struggling to emerge from the shadow of war

Thirty years ago next month a brutal war broke out in Bosnia. It lasted three and a half years and left more than 100,000 dead, most of them Bosniak Muslims. Today, as war once again erupts in Europe, the shadow of conflict still hangs over Bosnia.
3/21/22, 3:03 PM

In Praise of Conversations

A few days ago, a colleague spoke to me about the silence that followed his talk given in front of a group of young students.
3/8/22, 1:14 PM

Our Place in the Vertical World

We are witnessing massive transformations with technology that have shaken the foundation of the world. With the help of new technologies, governments are reclaiming sovereignty and imagining a new destiny for themselves.
3/7/22, 11:23 AM

The Wrong Answer to Cancel Culture

Why conservatives shouldn’t forget public decency when fighting cancel culture.
3/7/22, 11:14 AM

Women in international investment arbitration

The twenty-first century is a century of change: change in climate, society, family models, and – for better or worse – thought.
2/16/22, 8:00 AM
Author: Huub Ruël

Reconsidering the purpose of business in a post-pandemic world: beyond corporate social responsibility

Today there is not a single medium or large business that is not involved in and reports about its Corporate social responsibility (CSR): all of them want to show their contribution to society, how they help solving grand challenges such as poverty, protection of our natural environmental and so on.
2/9/22, 1:44 PM

Why has the term “balkanization” become so obsolete that it no longer holds water?

Balkanization is a term that has been used and abused both in academia and in the popular culture for decades.
2/7/22, 8:00 AM

Playing Cluedo with the EU

A major effort is underway to create a more „federal” EU. Officials will deny, but like in the detective game „Cluedo”, there are hints.
2/4/22, 1:33 PM
Author: Tibor Fischer

The Dogged Dodger

As I write this, I don’t know whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson will still be barricaded in Downing Street by the time it’s published.
1/31/22, 8:00 AM

The Restoration of Scottish Education to its Own Axis

Where no important truth is at stake, asking young people to take the subject seriously is a pedagogical non-starter.
12/10/21, 9:34 AM

Media Freedom in Hungary: A Nuanced View

There is a widespread view in the West that free media in Hungary under Viktor Orbán are greatly reduced, and that what remains of them are under immense political pressure. The truth is more complicated.
12/6/21, 10:00 AM

Playing With Fire: the EU-Poland Legal Crisis

Poland has been in the spotlight of European media and public opinion in recent weeks. The country’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled on the 7th of October that some parts of EU law are inconsistent with the country’s constitution.
11/30/21, 8:18 PM

The law that will change Germany forever

Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) Greens and Liberals have agreed on a coalition government, and presented a programme. It contains a radical reform of migration policy that will change Germany forever.
10/8/21, 8:51 AM
Author: Tibor Fischer

The Apes Are Bored

Bitcoin became legal tender in El Salvador this September. It’s what the faithful had predicted for several years, that not just individuals and businesses, but countries would drink deep of the original cryptocurrency. On the global scale, it matters little, but the legislation in El Salvador is an important test of whether Bitcoin can really function as a ‘remittance’ tool and can be useful on an everyday, going-to-the-corner-shop level.
9/24/21, 9:56 AM

Hungarian law on the protection of minors vs. European Commission: chronicle of a clash foretold?

Is there a firm legal base behind, as many claims, the ideologization of the EU? How did phrases like "European values" or "non-discrimination" become captive to certain ideologies instead of remaining decisive points of unity for the European community?
9/8/21, 9:15 AM
Author: Huub Ruël

What the West can learn from The Beggar

How can a statue save the West?
8/16/21, 8:11 AM

The EU needs more transparent rules to punish member states (A reply to Gerald Knaus)

Think tank founder Gerald Knaus proposes to fine Poland 5,2% billion Euros for not implementing an ECJ ruling. In fact, there are no clear rules for imposing fines. This must change.
8/11/21, 9:11 AM

The EU can break a member state if it chooses to

The EU can inflict murderous financial punishment on states who don’t implement rulings of the European Court of Justice. This instrument has never been used to really hurt a member state – but legally, it can. Poland may soon become the first country to feel the pain. The political consequences could be disastrous for all concerned, including the EU itself.
8/3/21, 11:21 AM

Commission vs Hungary and Poland: some (strictly legal) observations

While the clash between the EU and Hungary on the law for the migration of minors still hits the news, let’s set the focus for a second on the strictly legal aspects of the controversy.
7/5/21, 9:24 AM

Cancel culture, the new European value

The European Council of 24-25 June 2021 was historical but not for the reasons you might think. Where some saw a vocal defence of “common values” against the umpteenth attack from the Hungarian government, others saw a worrying evolution amid the one-sided media noise: the official advent at the highest political level of cancel culture in the EU.
6/29/21, 9:50 AM

Can Free Media be a Danger to Freedom of Expression?

It’s never good when media freedom is supressed. But can the media themselves suppress freedom of speech? A leading German pollster thinks they do.
6/19/21, 8:44 AM
Author: Tibor Fischer

Russians Go Home! - Ruszkik haza!

It’s now some thirty years since Soviet forces withdrew from Hungary and the all the aims of the 1956 revolution were finally achieved. By the end, it was a curious relationship.
6/8/21, 9:01 AM

Why fake/pseudoscience will always be popular?

Fake science undermines the academic sphere’s integrity and the individuals’ ability to form evidence-based opinions. But what's to key to its success?
5/26/21, 9:02 AM
Author: Tibor Fischer

Can a writer write too much?

"A curiosity as to the nature of “Europe” is something that Márai pioneers." - Tibor Fischer on the great Hungarian prose writer Sándor Márai and his legacy.
5/10/21, 8:55 AM
Author: Tibor Fischer

The Scramble for Everything: Blockchain Wars

Tibor Fischer on how the mainstream media misses the big story - again. Now about blockchain, cryptocurrency, and Web 3.0.
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