Category: Democratic Backsliding

Back to the future: Another populist, volatile ‘roaring twenties’?

     

The populist test to liberal democracy will remain robust throughout the 2020s,  argues Yasmeen Serhan, a London-based staff writer at The Atlantic: Across Europe, populist leaders have displayed their willingness to… Read more »

Democracy embattled: How bad is the crisis?

     

Around the world, democracies are getting weaker and elected politicians are becoming more unpopular. Are they serving the people—or themselves? The Economist asks (see below). The Crisis of Democracy and… Read more »

Georgia’s status as post-Soviet democratic leader challenged

     

Georgia’s status as a post-Soviet democratic leader is under challenge, according to analysts Denis Corboy, William Courtney, Kenneth Yalowitz. A flawed presidential election, use of force against protesters, and political manipulations… Read more »

Democracies on the verge of a nervous breakdown?

     

If there’s a word that sums up the current mood of the West’s high command, it’s this: despair. That’s the clearest and most alarming takeaway from discussions with the assorted… Read more »

Democratic ideas resilient despite leadership void

     

  A number of recent reports paint a grim picture for the future of global democracy. According to watchdog Freedom House, 2018 marked the 13th consecutive year of decline in global… Read more »

Can new social compact resolve tension between democratic recession and resilience?

     

The collapse of communism in Europe 30 years ago ended a broader social-democratic compact. Does the failure to refashion that compact explain varying degrees of democratic recession and resilience? NATO… Read more »

Democracy doomsayers question causes of backsliding

     

Are the causes of democratic erosion the same in the advanced liberal democracies as seen in Venezuela, Hungary, Turkey, Spain before the Spanish Civil War, and Germany and Italy before… Read more »

Turkey’s ‘soft dictatorship’: How to combat Erdogan’s illiberal populism

     

Istanbul’s new mayor says his election victory against Turkey‘s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party carries an important lesson for the world’s populist leaders: Act against the will of the people… Read more »

Shining light on ‘an existential moment’ for Asian democracies

     

Asian democracy is facing a “dystopian future” as scaling back in U.S. engagement and leadership is empowering forces that undermine democratic norms and processes. The warning came as Asian democracy… Read more »

How to Make Democracies Resilient

     

  The spread of illiberal and autocratic tendencies challenges Europe’s democracies, the V-Dem Institute observes. While in some European countries democratic institutions are already eroding, illiberal political parties are on… Read more »