Author Archives: DemDigest

My trial: Angolan anti-corruption activist appears in court

     

Prominent Angolan human rights activist and journalist Rafael Marques de Morais appeared in court Monday on charges of insulting a public authority after questioning the integrity of a former attorney… Read more »

Fear and freedom: is Western democracy in danger?

     

Could democracy die in the US? Is a new wave of authoritarianism sweeping the world? Is the west about to be engulfed by civil conflict? FT columnist Gideon Rachman asks:… Read more »

Sharp elbows behind China’s sharp power

     

Despite his stridently nationalist rhetoric, Beijing’s ‘sharp power’ poses no threat to other nations, according to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Speaking at the close of the annual session of the… Read more »

Why democracies collapse: erosion, decay, backsliding

     

The events of the past quarter-century have challenged the view that history moves inexorably in one direction. Liberal democracy is not the “end of history”—nothing is, argues William Galston, senior… Read more »

How Cambridge Analytica’s psychological warfare subverts democracy

     

A British TV station broadcast video Monday apparently showing the head of the data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica, talking about using bribes, traps involving sex workers and other unethical tactics to swing… Read more »

Authoritarianization: understanding Duterte’s rise to power

     

Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte’s rise can’t be understood in isolation, argues analyst Richard Javad Heydarian. It has to be situated within a broader context of how populism takes root in… Read more »

Can Saudi Arabia help win ‘Islam’s War of Ideas’?

     

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is in Washington, D.C., March 19-22, the third stop on his first foreign trip as crown prince, notes the Project on Middle East Democracy: Mohammed… Read more »

The ‘fascist’ philosopher inspiring Russia’s kleptocrats

     

An advocate of Russian fascism is having a profound influence on the discourse of the country’s politicians and kleptocrats,* including Vladimir Putin, according to a leading commentator. Because Ivan Ilyin (left)… Read more »

Data’s threat to democracy: civil society’s soft power ‘can counter disinformation’

     

Is our personal data safe? And might it be used by individuals, companies or governments to influence the democratic process? BBC media editor Amol Rajan asks: These are the two… Read more »