Category: Democratic institutions

Authoritarian International: Will human rights survive illiberal democracy?

     

The European Union’s response to Russia’s sham election suggests that it has decided it’s time to cuddle up to dictators, the Carnegie Endowment’s Judy Dempsey observes in the Washington Post…. Read more »

Existential risk to civil society in ‘skillfully veiled authoritarian’ Hungary

     

Hungary’s illiberal leader has built what Paul Lendvai in his new book, “Orbán,” calls a “skillfully veiled authoritarian system,” notes James Kirchick, a visiting fellow at the Center on the… Read more »

Democracy under pressure: polarization and repression increasing worldwide

     

The quality of worldwide democracy and governance has fallen to its lowest level in 12 years, with much of the decline occurring in free societies where some governments rule with… Read more »

Fear and freedom: is Western democracy in danger?

     

Could democracy die in the US? Is a new wave of authoritarianism sweeping the world? Is the west about to be engulfed by civil conflict? FT columnist Gideon Rachman asks:… Read more »

Why democracies collapse: erosion, decay, backsliding

     

The events of the past quarter-century have challenged the view that history moves inexorably in one direction. Liberal democracy is not the “end of history”—nothing is, argues William Galston, senior… Read more »

How Cambridge Analytica’s psychological warfare subverts democracy

     

A British TV station broadcast video Monday apparently showing the head of the data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica, talking about using bribes, traps involving sex workers and other unethical tactics to swing… Read more »

The ‘fascist’ philosopher inspiring Russia’s kleptocrats

     

An advocate of Russian fascism is having a profound influence on the discourse of the country’s politicians and kleptocrats,* including Vladimir Putin, according to a leading commentator. Because Ivan Ilyin (left)… Read more »

Who will pick up the democracy promotion mantle?

     

It is not surprising that liberty has enemies. The tragedy now is that the defense of liberty is absent where it should be vibrant, argues Stein Ringen, a visiting professor… Read more »

Springtime for autocrats: the new caudillos

     

  Liberal democracy is threatened by populism of both left and right, according to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. “For the first time in my life I am anxious… Read more »

Will post-election Putin intensify conflict with the West?

     

If you want to know what might keep Vladimir Putin from a good night’s sleep after his expected landslide reelection as president of Russia on Sunday, there’s no better place… Read more »