Author Archives: DemDigest

Transatlantic democracies: converging or diverging?

     

The ‘Western ideal’ – a concept embodied in the democratic processes and free-market economies of the West – has long been a powerful draw for others, including originally for the… Read more »

Reviving the Propaganda State: How the Kremlin hijacked history

     

Are Western actions to blame for the steady deterioration in U.S.-Russia relations? While the Kremlin’s view of the West has long been hostile, the spread of “color revolutions” in the… Read more »

How to protect democracies from China’s ‘magic weapons’

     

Even more than his predecessors, Chinese President Xi Jinping has led a massive expansion of efforts to shape foreign public opinion in order to influence the decision-making of foreign governments… Read more »

Contrasting – and combatting – Russian and Chinese influence operations

     

China’s influence operations are “strategic and multifaceted”, The Guardian notes: The National Endowment for Democracy recently described other aspects as “sharp power”: the effort by authoritarian states not just to attract support… Read more »

Russia’s ‘orchestrated’ disinformation campaign aims to destabilize EU democracies

     

Facebook has told the Government’s fake news inquiry it will expand its investigation into whether Russian agents attempted to influence the Brexit vote. The social media giant previously said it found just… Read more »

Democratic citizenship as a way of life

     

  Over at The New York Times, David Brooks holds up John Stuart Mill, the second in a Heroes of Democracy series, for demonstrating that “democratic citizenship is a way of… Read more »

With democracy on the defensive, time for U.S. to ‘re-enter the fight’

     

With democracy on the defensive, America is missing in action, argues Brookings analyst William Galston. The latest Freedom House survey of global freedom (see below) notes “the accelerating withdrawal of… Read more »

Will Chavismo’s time finally run out in 2018?

     

Seven senior Venezuelan officials are likely to face European Union sanctions from next week, including the country’s powerful chief justice, diplomats said, as the EU seeks to pressure President Nicolas… Read more »

Democracy is ‘under assault’ and ‘in retreat,’ says Freedom House

     

A new report from the independent watchdog organization Freedom House says that democratic principles such as election integrity and freedom of the press are weakening globally for the 12th consecutive… Read more »