Category: Authoritarianism

China’s ‘Great Leap Backward’

     

A bipartisan strategic assessment underlies a widely-shared assumption about the likely direction of China’s development, notes a leading analyst. This was not the simplistic faith that if China became richer,… Read more »

‘Tyrant is dead, tyranny continues’: Cuban dissidents fear post-Castro crackdown

     

While Cuban-Americans partied in the streets of Miami after Fidel Castro died, dissidents in Cuba stayed home, fearing more repression though some hope his brother Raul will enact reforms, AFP… Read more »

How to stop corruption, curb kleptocracy

     

This week’s protests in Malaysia have again highlighted the political pathologies associated with rampant corruption and kleptocracy. Even in advanced liberal democracies like the UK, kleptocrats are using London’s property… Read more »

The leading stalwart against authoritarian populism is….

     

Around the world, many experts see a global swing toward authoritarian populism — a loosely defined political ideology often centered around anti-establishment grievances and aggressive foreign policy positions. However, a… Read more »

From Arab Spring to Arab crisis: a future for democracy in MENA?

     

A recent news item on the BBC’s English website neatly captured the sharp contrast in how, five years later, various Arab rulers, citizens and non-Arab observers view the popular uprisings… Read more »

Labor unrest presents dilemma to China’s ruling party

     

The Chinese workforce of Walmart, the world’s largest retail chain has put the ruling Communist Party in an uncomfortable position, publicly testing its Marxist commitment to defend the working class… Read more »

Islamist ideology, not Islam as theology, key to combatting extremism

     

Kosovo police said on Thursday that they prevented simultaneous attacks by the Islamic State group, including on the Israeli national football team that played a World Cup qualifier in neighboring… Read more »

Egypt NGO bill ‘effectively eradicates civil society’

     

Egypt has never been a welcoming place for civil society groups, but the past several years have seen an unrelenting crackdown on non-governmental organizations, note Nancy Okail and Allison L…. Read more »

How to address the crisis of democracy

     

Democracy today is facing greater challenges than at any time since the fall of communism a quarter of a century ago; greater than at any time, in fact, since the… Read more »