Category: Democratic institutions

Specter of ‘lost Left’ haunting Europe’s democracies

     

Common explanations for Europe’s malaise aren’t wrong, but they don’t provide the full picture, argues Sheri Berman, a professor of political science at Barnard College. A key cause for Europe’s… Read more »

After Mosul: state-building means democratic state-building

     

A dispute between Iraq and Turkey has emerged as a dramatic geopolitical sideshow to the complicated military campaign to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from the Islamic State, with Turkey’s… Read more »

Cold War 2.0? Confront authoritarianism by defending democratic values

     

Gen Sir Richard Shirreff remembers the moment he realized Nato was facing a new and more dangerous Russia. It was 19 March 2014, the day after Russia annexed Crimea from… Read more »

Venezuela’s odd transition to dictatorship

     

Venezuela’s Congress on Sunday declared that the government had staged a coup by blocking a drive to recall President Nicolas Maduro in a raucous legislative session that was interrupted when… Read more »

New voice of change helps Ukraine reinvent itself

     

Ukraine is at the center of Russia’s conflict with the West, playing a vital role in Vladimir Putin’s ambition to restore Russia’s great-power status, The Economist notes: The Kremlin has… Read more »

The future of Arab reform: beyond autocrats and Islamists

     

The argument for democratic reform in the Middle East seems harder to make today, despite the evidence for it being clearer, than it was when the Arab Spring sprung, argues… Read more »

Elections could consolidate or undermine Ghana’s democracy

     

Ghana’s forthcoming elections would further consolidate the country’s democratic institutions and practices if they prove to be “credible and peaceful,” says an international delegation from the National Democratic Institute. However,… Read more »

Leonardo DiCaprio cooperating in kleptocracy probe

     

Leonardo DiCaprio is aiding the investigation into a Malaysian embezzlement scam that involved his hit film about financial market fraud, “The Wolf of Wall Street,” AFP reports: The Hollywood star… Read more »