Category: Authoritarianism

The truth about Cuba’s ‘transformation’

     

The Cuban regime’s sympathizers – including those like Angela Davis who never protested Fidel Castro’s brutal anti-gay repressions – insist that the Communist stalwart may be moving closer to democracy, but more… Read more »

Russia’s ‘geopolitical capability’ in decline

     

Russia’s global ranking in the latest edition of The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index fell by nine places to 144th from 135th in 2017, putting it in the same position as… Read more »

American exceptionalism reclaimed?

     

Franklin D. Roosevelt once spoke of the United States as an “arsenal of democracy”; today, an arsenal of autocracy is forming as authoritarian states seek to put pressure on America’s… Read more »

The retreat of global democracy stopped – or just paused?

     

Only 4.5% of the world’s people live in a “full democracy,” but the global democratic regression at least paused in 2018, according to the latest edition of The Economist Intelligence… Read more »

‘New Cold War’ with assertively autocratic China? Display West’s democratic unity

     

The international system is currently experiencing a period of transition as economic, institutional and military power is being amassed by China, which is depleting the relative influence and stature of… Read more »

Democracy facing strong headwinds in 2019

     

Democracy is facing strong headwinds in 2019, according to Francesc Badia i Dalmases, Director of DemocraciaAbierta and author of “Order and disorder in the 21st century. Global governance in a… Read more »

How to hit Russia where it hurts

     

Western democracies need  a long-term strategy to ramp up economic pressure on Putin’s Russia, argues Peter Harrell, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, who served… Read more »

Nicaragua: Pope seeks dialog, regime commits ‘crimes against humanity’ 

     

Pope Francis today expressed the hope that a process of reconciliation could help resolve Nicaragua’s crisis. “The various political and social groups may find in dialogue the royal road to… Read more »

From exporting democracy to importing illiberalism?

     

In our work on hybrid or competitive authoritarian regimes, we show how democracy can be fundamentally compromised even without obvious civil liberties violations or electoral fraud, say analysts Lucan Ahmad Way and… Read more »