Category: Democracy Assistance and Promotion

Is Africa’s model democracy in danger of faltering?

     

With just under two months to go before the polls, several signs indicate that, despite Ghana’s track record, problems will plague the upcoming elections more severely than in the past,… Read more »

Georgia’s free and fair elections confirm political polarization

     

Georgia’s parliamentary elections were free, fair, competitive and overall confirmed existing trends, most observers attest. The results nevertheless confirmed continued polarization of the political space between the two dominant political… Read more »

Illiberalism and authoritarianism can be successfully challenged

     

Illiberalism and authoritarianism in central and eastern Europe can be successfully challenged, according to Tom Junes, a member of the Human and Social Studies Foundation and a visiting fellow at… Read more »

Ukraine about to enter a ‘more difficult and dangerous phase’

     

What is happening in Ukraine shows that if there is sufficient courage and strength in numbers, people power can make a difference, says Carnegie analyst Judy Dempsey. The sheer pressure… Read more »

Georgia elections: polarized but ‘pluralistic, competitive and well-run’

     

The ruling Georgian Dream party won a decisive victory in weekend elections, Transitions Online reports: Georgian Dream captured about 48.6 percent of the vote, and the opposition UNM a distant second… Read more »

Morocco election highlights political polarization, maintains constitutional smokescreen

     

  Morocco‘s moderate Islamists have won parliamentary elections, beating a rival party critics say is too close to the royal palace in a tight race that will complicate negotiations to… Read more »

If Africa had 100 citizens…….

     

Surveys like those of Afrobarometer testify to the sometimes “mystifyingly” resilient commitment to democratic values and institutions, Stanford University’s Larry Diamond told an audience at the National Endowment for Democracy… Read more »

Putting the populist revolt in its place: economic have-nots & cultural backlash

     

In many Western democracies, this is a year of revolt against elites, notes Joseph S. Nye, Jr., University Professor at Harvard University. As Financial Times columnist Philip Stephens put it,… Read more »

Russia urged to find masterminds of 2006 Politkovskaya murder

     

Colleagues of slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya gathered Friday at the office of her paper Novaya Gazeta exactly 10 years after the crusading reporter was shot dead, AFP reports: A… Read more »

Defending democracy in a ‘post-truth society’

     

The long-term integrity of democratic institutions is threatened by “deteriorating norms of truthfulness and authority”, says Stanford University’s Francis Fukuyama, a board member of the National Endowment for Democracy. The… Read more »