Author Archives: DemDigest

Democracy in the age of COVID-19: Regression, resilience or ‘radical uncertainty’?

     

  As the coronavirus pandemic grips the world, leaders are enacting special powers in this time of crisis. Augusta University political science professor Craig Albert discusses the long-lasting impact on… Read more »

Pandemic populist pandemonium? Dictators using coronavirus to strengthen grip

     

A contagion on the scale of the coronavirus may offer authoritarians a greater opportunity than any event short of war, Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council… Read more »

COVID-19 might expose kleptocrats’ misrule

     

While international attention on anything other than COVID-19 is in short supply right now, it remains crucial to speak out against the Putins, Kaczyńskis,and Orbáns of the world, argues Jan-Werner… Read more »

Coping with COVID-19: democracies ‘hold a clear advantage’

     

China and some of its acolytes are pointing to Beijing’s success in coming to grips with the coronavirus pandemic as a strong case for authoritarian rule. Yet democracies do appear… Read more »

‘A New Invisible Hand’: Corrosive capital is repurposing democracy

     

Illiberal regimes like those in China and Russia use capital as a foreign policy tool and often as a form of strategic corruption to bolster authoritarianism as a globally competitive… Read more »

Covid-19 crisis could ‘help restore democratic leadership’

     

  The coronavirus crisis could still help restore democratic leadership in the world, says William Burns (left), a distinguished veteran of the U.S. State Department and National Endowment for Democracy… Read more »

The global protest wave: Correcting misconceptions

     

The global protest wave is a roiling tide driven by a dauntingly diverse array of factors, including the travails of democracy and autocracy alike, the shortcomings of both market and… Read more »

‘Authoritarian entrepreneurship’: How coronavirus contaminates democracy

     

Open societies “are more likely to find answers (to the #covid19 crisis) more quickly” than authoritarian ones because they encourage “ creativity and cooperation, National Endowment for Democracy (NED) board… Read more »