Author Archives: DemDigest

Self-regulating democracy – declared moribund, may be more resilient

     

Democracy, repeatedly declared moribund by schadenfreudian pundits, may be more resilient than some acknow­ledge, notes Steven Pinker, the Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and the author of 10… Read more »

Twilight of Democracy? The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

     

Changes in U.S. and European democracies over the past decade are examined by Anne Applebaum, Atlantic staff writer, National Endowment for Democracy (NED) board member and the author of the forthcoming Twilight… Read more »

In the conflict between ‘capitalist democracy’ and communism, capitalism won. But…..

     

The emerging competition between American and Chinese models of capitalism, the problem of inequality in developed societies, and the cultural contradictions of meritocracy, were the focus of The American Interest’s Damir… Read more »

Democracy for Palestinians? Election talk rekindles hope

     

The European Union is pressuring the Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership to hold legislative and presidential elections, as the body appears to be moving toward a more strong-armed approach to Palestinian affairs… Read more »

Advancing Arab democracy: interests vs. ideals

     

The Arab Spring uprisings began a century after Woodrow Wilson began a push to promote democracy abroad, believing this would foster world peace and stability. Over the last 100 years,… Read more »

The hard choice facing Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed

     

Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed faces a hard choice between a shift towards authoritarianism, or the difficult task of generating confidence and belief in his reforms,* according to Nick Cheeseman, professor of… Read more »

2019’s ‘tsunami of protests’: democracy’s new hope or false dawn?

     

When historians look back at 2019, the story of the year will be the tsunami of protests that swept across six continents and engulfed both liberal democracies and ruthless autocracies,… Read more »

Preventing violent extremism in fragile states: A governance agenda

     

The Islamic State was dealt serious blows with the loss of its territorial caliphate in March 2019 and death of its leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, in October 2019, analyst… Read more »

‘Managed Competition’? Meeting China’s challenge

     

China’s authoritarian leadership organizes and implements policies in ways that often are systemically incompatible with democratic, free market nations, according to a new report from the Scowcroft Center’s Transatlantic Security… Read more »