Author Archives: DemDigest

Neighbors’ lesson for Algeria: transitions are uncertain, unpredictable – and reversible

     

  Algeria’s interim leader Abdelkader Bensalah said an election to choose a successor to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will take place on July 4. Bouteflika, in power for twenty years, stepped… Read more »

Is international community ready to support Sudan’s democratization?

     

After months of protests, President Omar al-Bashir has been forced (HT: Foreign Policy) to step down by the military and is reportedly under house arrest. Bashir has ruled Sudan for 30… Read more »

Tensions in Indonesia: ‘resilient elections, defective democracy’?

     

On the eve of historic elections, a conundrum lies at the heart of Indonesian politics. Successive governments have built one of the most important foundations of a successful democracy: free,… Read more »

Democracies divided over Venezuela’s ‘Mafia State’

     

The power outage that left most of Venezuela without electricity for five days in early March seemed eerily symbolic of the mood among many people there. Living through one of… Read more »

Egypt’s Sisi seeks approval to ‘further institutionalize authoritarianism’

     

Egypt’s military leader, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is in some ways trying to turn the clock back, restoring the six-year presidential term and exempting himself from term limits—which, by the way,… Read more »

Testing resilience: ‘democracy not in question – the way we practice it is’

     

Democracy is not in question, but the way we practice it is, according to a new analysis, which gathers available evidence for a European reality-check. “One of the many drivers… Read more »

‘Connectivity is the new geopolitics’: democracy at stake

     

Chinese tech giants Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent are rapidly improving their artificial intelligence, challenging current U.S. tech leaders like Google and Amazon, Fortune’s Jonathan Vanian writes: China’s so-called BAT companies, as New York University… Read more »