Robert Michels’ century-old classic ‘Political Parties’ first asked the question we still can’t solve: in democracies, will elected representatives always dominate their voters?

Why has a new report by the International Monetary Fund gone mostly unremarked, given current concern about the widening inequality gap? The report, by Florence Jaumotte and Carolina Osorio Buitron, economists from this temple of neoliberalism, finds that “lower unionisation is associated with an increase in top income shares in advanced economies” between 1980 and 2010. They explain this correlation: “Weaker unions can reduce workers’ influence on corporate decisions that benefit top earners” (...)

The Bardo museum attacks in Tunis showed most recently the dangers of growing radicalisation. What Al-Qaida began, IS has turned into an expanding movement with a territorial base, adept at propaganda and using extreme violence.