Turkey’s 30-year coup
According to Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the recent attempted coup was not a legitimate sign of civic unrest, notes Dexter Filkins. In fact, it did not even originate in… Read more »
Category: Democratic Backsliding
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 »
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 »
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 »
Illiberal international seeks ‘cultural counter-revolution’
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, have proclaimed a counter-revolution aimed at turning the European Union into an… Read more »
ANC response to poll losses startles S. Africa
When South African voters last month handed the African National Congress its worst-ever losses, seemingly chastened party leaders said they would engage in “introspection.” They promised to reach out to… Read more »
Welcome to demokrasi: Turkey’s ‘new form’ of illiberal democracy
After a decade in power, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presides over a new form of democracy that the west neither likes nor understands: an authoritarian regime that exalts the… Read more »
#ConCaracas: Venezuela approaching tipping point?
A major opposition protest planned for September 1 could determine the political future of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro. Opposition leaders say they will take to the streets of the capital Caracas to insist… Read more »
Palestine: crackdown on journalists, civil society activists
The Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and Gaza are arresting, abusing, and criminally charging journalists and activists who express peaceful criticism of the authorities, Human Rights Watch said today:… Read more »
How Poland’s Law and Justice Party is threatening democracy
After simmering for nine months, the tension between Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and the country’s highest court, the Constitutional Tribunal, is coming to a boil, says R…. Read more »