Supporting a United Ukraine
President Petro Poroshoenko and comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the two candidates in Ukraine’s runoff presidential election, face off in an official debate in Kiev on Friday (RFE/RL:CFR). The vote will be… Read more »
Author Archives: DemDigest
How democracies can prevent, withstand, and counter assaults
The upcoming European Parliament contests are one of the largest, most complex democratic undertakings on record, as twenty-eight EU members will choose leaders for the next half-decade, notes Erik Brattberg,… Read more »
Populists in Power: a glimmer of hope?
The historical record since 1945 gives us a picture of how populists operate once they hold political power. The record shows that populism is inimical to liberal democracy, and not… Read more »
Western Balkans: how to build democratic resilience?
Twenty years after the wars in the Western Balkans ended, internal and external authoritarian tendencies threaten democracy in this troubled region. While technically free, elections are hardly fair. Internally, they are… Read more »
Ukraine’s election – an ‘all-out disinformation battle’
Ukrainians fed up with entrenched corruption and hungry for change are likely to elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a comedian with no previous political experience, as their next president in a run-off… Read more »
China after Tiananmen: the Death That Sparked a Movement
Thirty years ago yesterday, the death of high-ranking official and former CCP General Secretary Hu Yaobang prompted thousands of Chinese students sympathetic to the liberal official to take to the… Read more »
Does democracy’s past reveal its future?
Faced with the dispiriting state of global democracy,* worried observers fret over three basic questions: Why is this democratic recession happening? How bad is it? And where is it heading?… Read more »
China’s New Silk Road – in the Americas?
Perhaps no issue this century in the Americas has been as significant as China’s rise, from a limited presence to becoming the top trade partner of much of South America… Read more »
Social media’s risks to digital freedom
In the latest episode of the Power 3.0 blog, featured guest Ronald J. Deibert discusses the dramatic shift in perceptions of social media, which principally have been seen as providing… Read more »
Russia’s ‘Stockholm syndrome’: Stalin nostalgia at all-time high
Soviet — specifically Stalinist — nostalgia is alive and well in Russia, according to a new poll conducted by the Moscow-based Levada Center, The Moscow Times reports: Bloomberg adds that the poll… Read more »