Category: Authoritarianism

How Kazakhstan’s transition is playing out

     

Kazakhstan’s dictatorship appears to have all of the necessary institutions in place to facilitate a smooth transition after Nursultan Nazarbayev. The regime is set up to benefit from the presence of… Read more »

Reconciling artificial intelligence and human rights

     

  Around the world, concern about the consequences of our growing reliance upon artificial intelligence (AI) is rising. Perhaps the darkest concerns relate to development of AI by authoritarian regimes, some… Read more »

Egypt’s ‘2011 gains lost’ as Sisi extends authoritarian rule

     

    Egyptian voters approved (HT:Foreign Policy) constitutional changes, including an amendment that could permit President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to stay in office through 2030. But opposition groups rejected the vote,… Read more »

Can Russia get over its Ukraine obsession?

     

Russians have been so obsessed with Ukraine for five years to the point of forgetting about their own country’s problems, says analyst Liliya Shevtsova (below, left. HT: Paul Goble) and… Read more »

Will China drive a wedge between transatlantic democracies?

     

The next round of U.S.-China great power competition is poised to extend beyond the economic and military domains, morphing into an ideological competition between American free market democratic capitalism and… Read more »

China’s ‘Belt and Road’ inhibiting democratic consolidation

     

The Chinese government should ensure the projects it finances or engages in under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) respect human rights, Human Rights Watch said today: On April 25-27,… Read more »

Ukraine’s ‘Electoral Maidan’: good news for democracy, bad news for the Kremlin

     

Political novice and comedian Volodymyr Zelensky won a sweeping victory [HT: Foreign Policy] in Ukraine’s elections what is seen as a protest vote against Ukraine’s establishment. He beat out incumbent President… Read more »

How democracies can prevent, withstand, and counter assaults

     

The upcoming European Parliament contests are one of the largest, most complex democratic undertakings on record, as twenty-eight EU members will choose leaders for the next half-decade, notes Erik Brattberg,… Read more »

Populists in Power: a glimmer of hope?

     

The historical record since 1945 gives us a picture of how populists operate once they hold political power. The record shows that populism is inimical to liberal democracy, and not… Read more »

China after Tiananmen: the Death That Sparked a Movement

     

Thirty years ago yesterday, the death of high-ranking official and former CCP General Secretary Hu Yaobang prompted thousands of Chinese students sympathetic to the liberal official to take to the… Read more »