Global democracy 2020: Bad news, good news
The year 2020 brought us mostly bad news regarding the state of global democracy, though there were some preliminary signs that things might yet turn around, notes Francis Fukuyama, a… Read more »
Category: Civil Society
‘Silver bullet’ needed to bring autocrats to heel
New legislation allows Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban to further consolidate power while eroding civil liberties and making it harder to scrutinize how the government spends public funds, the Times… Read more »
‘Democracy dividend’ fund could facilitate breakthrough transitions
Should the U.S. re-commit to revitalizing current instruments for democracy assistance rather than allocating resources to a proposed Summit for Democracy? On its face, the agenda of the proposed summit… Read more »
Shoring up democracy: Linking values and strategy
If the democratic world is going to mount a successful defense against authoritarian states’ efforts to rewrite global norms in their own favor, NATO and EU nations must make up… Read more »
Freedom’s struggle in the Indo-Pacific: A new experiment
What is the best balance of political freedom and economic openness? We are about to witness a demonstration of whether an authoritarian state can take over a free society and… Read more »
China launches ‘gray-zone’ warfare to subdue Taiwan: CCP ‘reaping the whirlwind’ from too-sharp power
Months after eliminating a popular challenge to its rule in Hong Kong, China is turning to an even higher-stakes target: self-governing Taiwan. The island has been bracing for conflict with… Read more »
Covid-19 pandemic highlights democratic deficits (and resilience)
More than six in 10 countries around the world have adopted measures during the Covid-19 pandemic that threaten democracy or human rights, a report by the Stockholm-based democracy institute International… Read more »
How ‘summit for democracy’ can rally allies against autocracies
The U.S.-led countries of the trans-Atlantic alliance and their democratic East Asian allies lack a strategy for dealing with their most formidable competitor: China. But the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)… Read more »
Rise of Russian civil society meets ‘slow contraction of pro-regime majority’
The “slow but perceptible rise of Russian civil society” combined with the gradual contraction of the pro-regime majority presents a challenge to the Kremlin, say two leading analysts. But the… Read more »
Democracy in post-pandemic Latin America: Enhanced vulnerabilities
Latin American democracy was already vulnerable before the pandemic due to crises of trust, legitimacy and representation, corruption, and the overall mixed results of the political system for citizens, according… Read more »