Category: Analysis

Populist right ‘has already won’ the European Parliament elections?

     

As voters prepare to elect a new European Parliament, Europeans feel disaffected with the performance of democracy in their countries. In six of the 10 European countries surveyed, half or… Read more »

Russia’s ‘opposition at a distance’ as new civil society emerges?

     

The entire politics desk of one of Russia’s top daily newspapers, Kommersant, quit on Monday in protest over censorship after two veteran reporters were fired. The walkout at the newspaper controlled… Read more »

Populist malpractice raises serious concerns about European elections’ integrity

     

For weeks, Europe’s far-right populists have been dashing across the Continent, joining arms and presenting themselves as a united front that will batter the political establishment and score a big… Read more »

A new kind of Cold War? Facing up to China’s sharp power strategy

     

A previously unreported meeting is an example of how the Chinese government directly — and often secretly — engages in political activity in Australia, making the nation a laboratory for… Read more »

‘Global Crisis of Democracy’: a new tide of authoritarianism is gathering

     

Democracy faces a global crisis, according to a leading analyst. Over the past decade, one in six democracies has failed. Today only a bare majority of the world’s larger states… Read more »

Democracy needs new narrative for ‘cultural fight against populism’

     

Powerful global forces are eroding the foundations of the liberal order and empowering illiberal figures like Britain’s pinstriped populist Nigel Farage, The Economist observes: The most powerful of these global… Read more »

Worst assault yet on rule of law means ‘the end of Hong Kong’?

     

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Hong Kong pro-democracy leader Martin Lee on Thursday, the State Department said, as Hong Kong activists seek to derail a proposed extradition… Read more »

Adversary or enemy? China is ‘unlikely to simply collapse’

     

The Soviet Union and its satellites were an apparatus of state terror, resting on an ideology of class hatred, foisted on nations that wanted no part of either. It was… Read more »

Refreshing democracy: political innovation breeds democratic rejuvenation

     

Germany, like many places in Europe, is badly in need of democratic rejuvenation, says Verena Friederike Hasel, a contributing journalist for Die Zeit, who is currently working on a book… Read more »

Rule of law the key to renovating democracy, countering illiberal forces

     

Autocratic and illiberal forces arise when there is a vacuum of power and authority, say two leading analysts. The refugee and immigration crisis emanating from Central America, for example, is… Read more »