Category: Authoritarianism

World has more but weaker democracies: Backsliding ‘a growing malaise,’ report says

     

“Despite the continued quantitative increase in the world’s democracies, the quality of the world’s democracies is eroding,” the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) concludes in its… Read more »

China’s authoritarian rule is coming back to bite it – and us

     

China’s Communist leaders are engage in an ideological conflict with liberal democracy on the global stage and, domestically, using modern-day totalitarian brainwashing, bizarre lies and industrial-level indoctrination to suppress Muslims…. Read more »

Can new social compact resolve tension between democratic recession and resilience?

     

The collapse of communism in Europe 30 years ago ended a broader social-democratic compact. Does the failure to refashion that compact explain varying degrees of democratic recession and resilience? NATO… Read more »

Owners of the Republic: Can Egypt’s military counter authoritarian fragility?

     

Egypt’s military is consolidating its role as an autonomous actor that can reshape markets and influence government policy. But recent protests suggest that, rather than a model of stability, the… Read more »

Democracy doomsayers question causes of backsliding

     

Are the causes of democratic erosion the same in the advanced liberal democracies as seen in Venezuela, Hungary, Turkey, Spain before the Spanish Civil War, and Germany and Italy before… Read more »

Explaining Asia’s turn to illiberal democracy

     

The return of the Rajapaksa brothers to power in Sri Lanka highlights a broader and more alarming trend: the rise of illiberal democracy in South Asia as Sri Lanka joins… Read more »

Hong Kong protests: Is Beijing ready to step in?

     

As tension rises between Hong Kong’s police and student activists barricaded inside university campuses, Chinese President Xi Jinping has reiterated mainland support for Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, saying… Read more »

Turkey’s ‘soft dictatorship’: How to combat Erdogan’s illiberal populism

     

Istanbul’s new mayor says his election victory against Turkey‘s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party carries an important lesson for the world’s populist leaders: Act against the will of the people… Read more »

‘Underestimating democracy’ invites demagoguery, says Walesa

     

Authoritarians are resurgent because of the failure to create a new global system of democratic values, said former Solidarnosc leader and Polish president Lech Walesa. “Polish democracy in practical terms… Read more »