Hybrid Putinism: ‘a mafia state with a totalitarian society’?
The question of what constitutes democracy did not have time to be hashed out in the Russian public sphere before that sphere began disappearing a decade and a half ago,… Read more »
Category: Democratic institutions
Populism and protest: is Poland a harbinger?
The 2015 victory of Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) party is an example of the rise of contemporary authoritarian populism, say analysts Joanna Fomina and Jacek Kucharczyk. The PiS’s rise… Read more »
Kremlin-sponsored anti-Americanism a common denominator for Europe’s left and right
Over the past few years, anti-Americanism has become an integral part of any debate on foreign and domestic policy in Russia, notes Anton Barbashin, a managing editor at Intersection. You… Read more »
Is ‘Populist International’ Undermining Western Democracy?
Europe’s populists share ideas and ideology, friends and funders, notes analyst Anne Applebaum. They cross borders to appear at one another’s rallies. They have deep contacts in Russia — they… Read more »
‘Zealous democrats’? Call to redefine political Islam
The definition of ‘political Islam’ should be narrowed to recognize that many Islamic political movements share democratic values, according to a report by an influential committee of British MPs. The… Read more »
What the West can do to contain Russia’s aggression, disinformation
Even before the December 2011 protests — and his own reelection as president in March 2012 — Vladimir Putin had begun signaling the return of a more authoritarian and aggressive… Read more »
‘Hogra’ protests test Morocco’s Makhzen
Grainy video images and the screams of a young fishmonger who was crushed to death in a garbage truck while trying to stop police destroying his stock have shocked Moroccans… Read more »
Reclaiming Mosul: concerns about politics the ‘day after’
An array of Iraqi forces, backed by a broad international coalition, is closing in on the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, united in their determination to crush the jihadists but… Read more »
Helping Europe through its crisis of illiberal politics
Twenty years after the U.S. brokered peace in Bosnia, leaders who once pledged to rebuild a European democracy here are shunning the West, The Wall Street Journal reports: In the… Read more »
Dialog can’t avert ‘final blow to Venezuela’s democracy’
Venezuela has freed three opposition activists jailed for more than a month in a first gesture by President Nicolas Maduro’s government after talks began with his foes, Reuters reports: The… Read more »