Has democracy reached a breaking point?
Across the world, experts say democratic states are facing their biggest test in years as they attempt to cope with a loss of trust in public institutions and growing disenchantment… Read more »
Category: Authoritarianism
Six ways to combat Russia’s political jiu-jitsu against democracies
Russia’s information warfare is a form of political jiu-jitsu, reflecting its belief that the simplest way to take down a democracy is to turn its most powerful asset, the open… Read more »
Authoritarians mobilizing illiberal non-state actors against democratic forces
Authoritarian regimes are mobilizing and orchestrating ‘uncivil’ society groups and illiberal non-state actors against democratic forces, reports suggest. The uniformed men who shot Venezuelan pro-democracy demonstrator Carlos Moreno were not… Read more »
Hungary ‘copying Russia’ by targeting university?
As an American scholar of Soviet history, Charles D. Shaw thought he understood authoritarianism before he moved to Hungary in 2015 to teach at Central European University, the New York Times reports: “Coming from… Read more »
Evidence confirms Russian hackers, fake news targeting Europe’s elections
The campaign of the French presidential election candidate Emmanuel Macron has been targeted by what appear to be the same Russian operatives responsible for previous attacks on elections in Western democracies election,… Read more »
Populist turn exposed brittle consensus on liberal democracy
Reaction to the French presidential election result demonstrates just how low our standards have sunk. Anything short of outright triumph by the enemies of liberal democracy is now interpreted as… Read more »
Is Russia’s anti-corruption movement Putin’s Kryptonite?
Russian President Vladimir Putin today criticized opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, indirectly accusing him of using his anticorruption campaign to gain political prominence, RFE/RL reports: Without naming Navalny in comments… Read more »
Inside Chechnya’s ‘anti-gay pogrom’
Using classic KGB tactics, Chechen security officers are targeting and torturing gay men, the New York Times reports: Novaya Gazeta, an opposition newspaper, first reported the pogrom, saying that at least 100… Read more »
Boris Nemtsov – ‘as he really was’
MY FRIEND BORIS NEMTSOV Trailer from Antipode Sales on Vimeo. The film Nemtsov chronicles a remarkable political life, according to the Institute of Modern Russia: It is a story told by… Read more »
Liberal democracy ‘docile in defense of itself’
The peace-building aspect of the liberal order has been an extraordinary success, but its institutions have become disconnected from publics in the very countries that created them, according to Jeff D. Colgan and Robert… Read more »