Author Archives: DemDigest

UN ‘abandons democracy’ in Asia? Why governance still matters

     

Governance should be “framed in terms of how power is being exercised instead of how it is acquired,” according to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the… Read more »

Angolan activist’s prosecution is ‘retaliation’ for democracy award

     

Washington-based policy-makers on Capitol Hill and non-governmental groups alike are closely monitoring the prosecution of Angolan anti-corruption activist Rafael Marques, VOA reports. “Rafael was prosecuted in the past and imprisoned… Read more »

Kleptocrats without borders: Putin on defensive against corruption

     

A new poll released this week reveals a lot about how Russians view President Vladimir Putin. A whopping 87 percent of those surveyed say they trust him to represent their nation on… Read more »

Saudi ‘game of thrones’ consolidates autocracy

     

The appointment of Mohammad bin Salman, 31, as Saudi Arabia’s next king will accelerate his radical reform and further solidify the U.S.-Saudi partnership, says analyst Karen Elliott House, author of… Read more »

Democracy award winner charged with insulting Angola’s state

     

Two journalists in Angola face charges of insulting the state for an article about an allegedly unethical real estate deal involving the attorney general, The Associated Press reports: Rafael Marques… Read more »

Zimbabwe in Transition: Reform and Reconstruction

     

> A 2015 Contingency Planning Memorandum, “Political Instability in Zimbabwe,” highlighted the potential for violence in connection with leadership succession. And there are at least five areas of concern as… Read more »

Russian cyberattacks aimed at legitimacy of political process

     

Current and former government officials painted a sinister portrait Wednesday of Russian cyberattacks aimed at interfering in the U.S. presidential election last year, AP reports: Moscow stockpiled stolen information and selectively… Read more »

Political bots – ‘propaganda powerhouse’ threatens democracy

     

Bots airing pro-Kremlin views have flooded the Russian-language portion of the social media platform Twitter, in what researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute’s Computational Propaganda Research Project  say is an… Read more »

Liberal democracy not yet dead but crisis likely to persist

     

In his insightful and harrowing new book, Edward Luce, a columnist for The Financial Times, issues a chilling warning, Michiko Kakutani writes for The New York Times: “Western liberal democracy… Read more »