Five ways China is more repressive
Respect for human-rights and rule of law have deteriorated markedly during the term of Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to a new U.S. government report, which blames an ideological tightening… Read more »
Category: Civil Society
Russia shows symptoms of old disease: totalitarianism
Long before the Russian state declared the Levada Center, Russia’s only reputable independent polling organization, to be a “foreign agent” in September, its director, Lev D. Gudkov (left), knew this… Read more »
Expelling HK activist, Thailand ‘fits a global pattern’
Thailand on Wednesday barred entry to a Hong Kong student activist who helped organize pro-democracy protests in the Chinese-ruled city in 2014, with a Thai newspaper saying he had been… Read more »
Orbanism at its limits? Hungary’s referendum exposes the cracks
Around 98 per cent of Hungarian voters who participated in last weekend’s referendum on refugees’ resettlement rejected the proposed EU quotas, but turnout fell below the 50 per cent threshold… Read more »
Closing space and state fragility
Newfound modesty about Western interventionism does not just concern development assistance, but also democracy promotion and state-building, argues Ellen Laipson, president emeritus of the Stimson Center. “In policy discussions, one… Read more »
‘Disciplined democracy’ – Myanmar’s lessons for Cuba
In many ways, Cuba today resembles the Burma (Myanmar) of 10 years ago, argues Casey Cagley, Program Officer of the Latin America and Caribbean Division of the International Republican Institute…. Read more »
Kyrgyzstan: democratic disillusion fuels radicalization
Kyrgyzstan models itself as Central Asia’s only parliamentary democracy, but multiple challenges threaten its stability, says a new report from the International Crisis Group: Divided ethnically between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks… Read more »
Manipulating election to contain Morocco’s Islamists may backfire
On Friday, Oct. 7, Morocco will hold parliamentary elections that are an important barometer for the broader Middle East, since it is the only Arab country to organize regular elections… Read more »
Election exposes Jordan’s enduring weaknesses
One of the most common claims I hear when asking Jordanians about elections is: “We are a tribal society, and tribalism will always dominate the elections,” notes Kristen Kao, a… Read more »
Who murdered Giulio Regeni?
When the battered body of a Cambridge PhD student was found outside Cairo, Egyptian police claimed he had been hit by a car, notes Alexander Stille. Then they said he… Read more »