The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest
Zeynep Tufekci’s Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest is a timely examination of the recent digital era of public protest. Moving through her analyses of the… Read more »
Author Archives: DemDigest
What explains the populist surge? Interests or identity?
The abiding characteristic of populism is its division of the world into a virtuous people on the one hand, and corrupt elites and threatening outsiders on the other, notes FT… Read more »
Hackers ‘Russia-proofing’ Germany’s elections
From imperfect voting machines to the fake news that chokes social media, the U.S., the U.K., and France are only beginning to wrestle with the ways in which democracy can… Read more »
Angola’s kleptocracy resisting greater scrutiny
Angola’s reconstruction and oil boom presented the politically connected — those with “relatives in the kitchen,” as Angolans say — with a golden opportunity for self-enrichment. In an economy driven… Read more »
How Africa’s unions enhance democratization
Trade unions in Africa contribute to democratization by acting as instruments of political socialization for their members, according to new research. Survey data from 22,000 respondents in 18 African countries… Read more »
Elves vs. Trolls: Europe energized against disinformation threat
Russia has not hidden its liking for information warfare. The chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, wrote in 2013 that “informational conflict” is a key part of war, The… Read more »
Syrian dissident’s treatment creates disincentive to dialogue
A prominent Syrian dissident has been told he cannot get political asylum in the United States because he organized a conference with Syrian opposition groups — even though the American… Read more »
Liu Xiaobo’s condition ‘a blow to China’s democracy movement’
China’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo was granted his request to seek treatment for advanced liver cancer outside prison. Liu, who was sentenced to prison in 2009 for advocating… Read more »
Democracy in crisis: innovative strategies for turning the tide
After the hope engendered by the Third Wave, democracies around the world are beleaguered with threats from multiple sources, according to a new book, described as “a healthy and constructive… Read more »
Promoting modernized Islam to counter jihadist ideology
This week’s Brussels train station bombing renews the focus on the attraction and motivating power of jihadist ideology, The New York Times reports. Meanwhile, the attack on Muslim worshippers at… Read more »