Category: Authoritarianism

Hungary’s ‘political vandalism’ threatens CEU, civil society

     

Hungary said it will not withdraw new legislation to regulate foreign universities that a Budapest college founded by American financier and philanthropist George Soros says could force it out of… Read more »

Will Iran’s next election ‘reconfigure political landscape’?

     

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran’s hardliners may want to sideline President Hassan Rouhani as May’s elections approach, but getting there is risky, according to a prominent analyst. Traditionally,… Read more »

West ‘ignoring Putin’s actions’ – must engage Russia’s democracy movements

     

The U.S. should remain engaged with Russia’s pro-democracy movement, says a leading opposition activist. It is important to maintain pressure on the Russian authorities and President Vladimir Putin and take… Read more »

Belarus on the boil: What happens next?

     

Belarus authorities have arrested dozens in the wake of demonstrations protesting a law against “social parasites,” RFE/RL reports. The 2015 law took effect earlier this year, sparking protests that have broadened into… Read more »

Egypt’s swing between extremism and autocracy

     

The view that Egypt’s President and former army chief Abdel Fattah al Sisi is in control is not borne out by the pile-up of policy debris, says analyst David Gardner…. Read more »

Putin Generation finds its voice in anti-corruption protests

     

In Russia’s once-quiet provinces, young people took the lead in last weekend’s anti-corruption protests, AP reports. According to user data compiled from a social media page for people who said… Read more »

Political survival beats economic logic as Cuba’s ‘reform drive hits the sand’

     

The anniversary of the Russian Revolution is a timely reminder that Marxist ideology, once entrenched in countries that controlled a third of the world’s population, survives today as an operable… Read more »

Civil society the target in Hungary’s attack on Soros-funded university

     

Students and staff at the Central European University (CEU) in Hungary are protesting against what they say are government plans to close it down, the BBC reports: The university says… Read more »

To defeat populism, must democrats embrace nationalism?

     

Political scientists Yascha Mounk and Roberto Foa have been claiming for over two years that the world is facing an epidemic of populism and nationalism – or “illiberal democracy,” Haaretz reports:… Read more »

Venezuela’s tragic meltdown: Maduro regime’s ‘mysterious resilience’

     

Venezuela’s future is at stake this week as the Organization of American States plans to meet with officials from President Nicolás Maduro’s administration, and time is running out for them… Read more »