Africans want elections — if they bring change at the top
Many factors can affect how free and fair an election is, such as whether the opposition was given an equal chance to participate, whether media coverage was fair, whether votes… Read more »
Author Archives: DemDigest
China ‘normalizing and enabling’ global authoritarianism
Thirty years have passed, yet China’s Communist Party is only becoming more authoritarian and cruel, notes Xiao Qiang, the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of China Digital Times, a bilingual website launched… Read more »
Algeria’s divided democracy movement seeks end to impasse
In April 2019, Algerians ousted President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, becoming the fifth Arab country to topple a president since 2011, the Brookings Institution reports. Though successfully deposing the head of state,… Read more »
‘Backlash to the backlash’: tide turning against populism?
The newly-elected prime minister of the center-right New Democracy party, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, promises a return to normality for the middle class after 4.5 years with the populist Syriza party… Read more »
Breaking the populist polarization spiral
Across the world—from the United States to the United Kingdom, from Europe to South Asia and Latin America—politics and media are stuck in a spiral that incentivizes divisive rhetoric, hyper-partisanship,… Read more »
Corruption impacts society’s poorest and most vulnerable the hardest
More than one in four people who accessed public services during the previous year had to pay a bribe, according to the new Global Corruption Barometer – Africa 2019, released… Read more »
Regaining democratic momentum in face of ill winds
Since 2006, the world has been in a democratic recession, with more countries declining in freedom than gaining for each of the last thirteen years, The Henry Jackson Society observes. For… Read more »
Cuba’s sinking economy: Market-Leninism Ltd.
Cuba’s Communist government is studying the potential use of cryptocurrency and hikes in some pensions and wages for workers in public administration, social services and state-run media, bringing the medium… Read more »
Iran’s reformist movement – threatened or already dead?
Veterans of Iran’s reformist movement – Mohsen Aminzadeh, Mohammadreza Khatami, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, and Mostafa Tajzadeh – are concerned about the “mortal blow that even a limited military conflict with the United States of… Read more »
West’s democracies ‘fighting yesterday’s war’ against Russian disinformation & malign influence
The United States has “fallen behind” in addressing the threat of foreign disinformation, but it is not too late to change course and adopt a more proactive approach, a Capitol… Read more »