Who lost Russia? ‘Witness to the Counterrevolution’
Who lost Russia? It’s an old argument, and it misses the point. Russia was never ours to lose. Russians lost trust and confidence in themselves after the Cold War, and… Read more »
Category: Authoritarianism
Authoritarians’ corruption is a weapon — and a weakness
Russian President Vladimir Putin and other authoritarian rulers have worked assiduously to weaponize corruption as an instrument of foreign policy, using money in opaque and illicit ways to gain influence… Read more »
Can repression stop new series of protests in the Arab world?
Algeria is only the latest country in the Arab world to manifest the symptoms of deep political malaise and corresponding public discontent, says Leslie “Les” Campbell, Middle East and North… Read more »
International Women’s Day: defending women’s rights against authoritarianism
Women’s Learning Partnership Promo 2019 (English) from Women’s Learning Partnership on Vimeo. A recent public hearing of the US House Intelligence Committee dealt with the threat of rising authoritarianism and… Read more »
Democracy fosters economic growth (but democratization is no walk in the park)
Democracy fosters economic growth, with researchers finding vast gains in productivity after countries democratize, according to a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Research shows that when it… Read more »
Yes, the world is getting more populist: what liberal democrats can learn
Your perception is accurate….. The world is becoming more populist, according to a new research project by the Guardian and Team Populism. Professor Kirk Hawkins, from Brigham Young University in… Read more »
Cyber attacks could ‘taint’ democratic governments’ legitimacy
Cyber-attacks could turn elections into “tainted exercises” that undermine Western democracies, the foreign secretary has said. In a speech in Glasgow, Jeremy Hunt said authoritarian regimes view democratic elections as… Read more »
The China Model’s problem: successes becoming liabilities
Recent technological, diplomatic, investment and infrastructure successes have made China attractive to smaller countries not only as an economic partner but as an ideological standard-bearer, notes Elizabeth C. Economy, C.V…. Read more »
Is Tunisia really democratizing? Progress + resistance = uncertain outlook
While Tunisia’s eighth anniversary celebrations of the end of the Ben Ali dictatorship were marred by social protests, opinions differ about the country’s state of political development as it gears… Read more »
‘No to the Fifth Term’: Algeria’s New Protest Movement
In recent weeks, Algeria has witnessed mass protests demanding that the ailing president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, not run for a fifth five-year term in the election scheduled for April 18. The… Read more »