Category: Dictatorships

Cuba’s new constitution preserves Communist monopoly on power

     

Lawmakers in Cuba have endorsed a draft of a new constitution for the communist island nation that could, among other things, allow for the legalization of same-sex marriage, CNN reports. But… Read more »

Market-Leninism: Cuba’s ‘cosmetic’ reforms aim to forge China Model?

     

Are Cuba’s ruling Communist Party’s proposed constitutional revisions “a way to move the island into the 21st century” or cosmetic changes designed to maintain single-party rule akin to the China… Read more »

Sharp power central to China’s ‘superpower plans’

     

As the U.S. retreats, Beijing is talking more boldly about how it wants to change the global order and assert its own values and interests, according to Elizabeth Economy, the… Read more »

AI prompts new competition: digital authoritarianism vs. liberal democracy

     

Artificial intelligence will reshape the global order, says analyst Nicholas Wright, who predicts a new era of competition between digital authoritarianism and liberal democracy for Foreign Affairs: Some countries are… Read more »

Autocrats’ sharp power fails to curb activists’ U.N. role

     

An alliance of authoritarian states lost a bid on Friday to weaken a U.N. resolution upholding civil society activists’ role in highlighting human rights violations, according to campaigners. The United… Read more »

Time to resist China – ‘fueling corruption & autocratic behavior in struggling democracies’

     

Western-style multi-party democracy is inappropriate for Asia, the Chinese state-controlled Global Times said Monday. An op-ed titled “Multi-Party System Misfit in Asian Nations” suggests that pluralist democracy is inherently divisive, and that polarization… Read more »

Constitutional democracy’s ‘appeal and superiority can’t be taken for granted’

     

The Turkish election results confirm that security and a thriving economy, despite some recent weakness, trump most traditional democratic values, as many nations begin to shrug off their longstanding democratic exteriors,… Read more »

Time for world to stand up to China’s ‘hegemonic’ sharp power

     

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen (left) called on the international community to “constrain” China by standing up for freedoms, casting her island’s giant neighbor as a global threat to democracy. Her… Read more »

Why China won’t democratize anytime soon

     

China has not democratized yet, nor will it anytime soon, because communism’s institutional setup does not allow for successful democratization, argues Stephen Kotkin, Professor in History and International Affairs at… Read more »

How West can resist ‘long arm’ of China’s sharp power

     

China, not Russia, is the biggest threat to the United States in the decades to come, according to former secretary of defense Robert Gates who served the previous two U.S…. Read more »