Author Archives: DemDigest

Liberal democracy’s 1989 promise ‘a squandered opportunity’

     

Two great earthquakes shaped the present global order. The first, in 1989, seemed to promise an irresistible march towards liberal democracy and open markets. The opportunity was squandered by those… Read more »

Russia’s New Ideocracy vs. liberal democracy

     

  “Putinism” has long been a hot topic in the West, where the term – describing the policies and practices of Russian President Vladimir Putin – is generally met with… Read more »

Democracy under threat in post-Wall Europe: Spirit of 1989 fighting back

     

The west’s mistake after 1989 was not that we celebrated what happened in central Europe – and subsequently in the Baltic republics and the former Soviet Union – as a… Read more »

Two lessons from belated recognition of Armenian ‘Thirty-Year Genocide’

     

Is “Never Again” just a slogan or a genuine call to action; could genocide happen again, and where? ask Bernard-Henri Lévy and Thomas S. Kaplan, co-founders of Justice for Kurds… Read more »

Hybrid threat: Illiberal non-state actors clamping down on civic activism

     

1989 marked the end not of history as such, but of a specific chapter in history. Western liberal democracy, which Francis Fukuyama predicted would enjoy eternal supremacy after 1989, now faces an increasingly… Read more »

Democracies vs. dictatorships: A grand strategy

     

  While no country gets a perfect score on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), the top performing countries tend to be healthy democracies. The state of democracy in a country indicates… Read more »

‘Brazil Apart’: Who ended ‘false starts’ to democratization?

     

The election of leftist Alberto Fernández in Argentina could strain relations with Brazil—the other largest member of the Mercosur trade bloc, which recently struck a free-trade deal with the European… Read more »

‘Reasons for Hope’? Illiberal wave vs. democratic resilience

     

The illiberal wave in Poland and Hungary, in addition to the corruption in Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, and Slovakia can be easily used as excuses against further EU enlargement, notes Carnegie’s Judy Dempsey…. Read more »

Defending civic space: A strategic imperative for the international community

     

Civic space—the fundamental liberties that allow people to gather, communicate, and collectively engage in groups to influence society and politics—is the bedrock of any democracy. But it is increasingly vulnerable,… Read more »