Author Archives: DemDigest

Why elections are not necessarily democratizing

     

In Malawi’s presidential election in May, incumbent President Peter Mutharika narrowly won reelection. February’s Senegalese election was quite different, with incumbent Macky Sall easily claiming victory. Although Malawians continue to… Read more »

‘Never-ending state war against civil society’ meets the new face of Russia’s protests

     

Russian authorities have threatened protesters in Moscow with lengthy jail sentences in an attempt to dampen an unexpected surge in protest mood before a planned opposition rally, The Guardian reports…. Read more »

A dissident’s tale: How to help Iran’s democracy movement

     

Opposing the Iranian regime doesn’t have to mean sanctioning its banks and oil, argues Abbas Milani, the director of Stanford University’s Iran studies program. Milani cannot be called a squish… Read more »

Cuba: battling economic crisis, escalating attacks on civil society

     

Communist-run Cuba has imposed sweeping price controls on all state and private businesses as it battles a deepening economic crisis and mounting U.S. sanctions, Reuters reports: Resolutions published in the… Read more »

Democracy vs. kleptocracy

     

Democracy may be facing a crisis, but…. Now is a time “for resolve, not panic,” says Stanford University’s Larry Diamond. In his  latest book, Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage,… Read more »

Ungovernability at root of the crisis of democracy?

     

The problems of governance “stem from an excess of democracy,” according to the Trilateral Commission’s 1975 report, The Crisis of Democracy: On the Governability of Democracies. But recent trends highlight an… Read more »

Do women human rights defenders hold the key to a democratic Sudan?

     

Since the successful removal of former president Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s struggle for civilian rule has the world holding its breath, writes Julie Snyder, an adjunct fellow with the Human Rights… Read more »

‘Ray of Hope in the Haze’? How Europe’s democracies combat foreign interference

     

  Online foreign influence efforts are a threat that is here to stay. At least 24 countries worldwide have been targeted, with Russia being by far the most active aggressor; but… Read more »

China’s sharp power: Nationalists threaten violence, shape narrative overseas

     

    The Xinjiang region has been the site of a mass detention program where an estimated 1.5 million Uyghurs have been or are being held in a series of internment camps, China Digital Times* reports…. Read more »