How Russia sanctions bite the Kremlin
The West’s unprecedented step to sanction post-communist Russia [in the wake of the invasion of Crimea] proves that the liberal democracies no longer consider Russia as a responsible partner or… Read more »
Category: International Forum for Democratic Studies
Illiberal powers emboldened – Authoritarianism Goes Global
Over the past decade, and gained influence within the global arena. Leading authoritarian countries―including China, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela―have developed new tools and strategies to contain the… Read more »
Is Democracy in Decline?
For all the commentary on democratic recession, there has been nothing like the kind of “reverse wave” that Samuel P. Huntington’s The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century… Read more »
Poland’s ruling party aims ‘to delegitimize liberal democracy’
A pan-European rights body said on Monday it would review a newly amended Polish surveillance law, in a fresh challenge to the conservative government that reflects international concerns over… Read more »
Threat to liberal democracy’s primacy overstated?
The fact that the world’s richest country after World War II had a liberal economy and system of government had important implications not only for the creation of an open… Read more »
Consolidating Nepal’s democracy through transparent campaign finance
Nepal’s democracy has struggled to deliver since its 2006 People’s Movement, which ended the decade long civil war and established Nepal as a republic. Plagued by corruption, nepotism, and an… Read more »
Latin America: no sympathy for Venezuela’s Chavistas
When Venezuela’s head of state arrived in Quito, Ecuador, last week for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States summit, his pitch was almost unrecognizable. Gone were the encomiums… Read more »
How Ethiopia silences independent voices
After a tense year marked by widely-criticized elections in which Ethiopia’s ruling party won 100 percent of parliamentary seats, 2015 concluded with yet more repression in the East African nation,… Read more »
Authoritarian trendsetters’ antidemocratic toolkit
Authoritarian trendsetters have created a modern antidemocratic toolkit that in many ways serves as the mirror image of democratic soft power, the National Endowment for Democracy’s Christopher Walker writes… Read more »
The authoritarian hijacking of soft power
A renewed struggle between democracy and authoritarianism has emerged, argues Christopher Walker, executive director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy. The decade-long democratic… Read more »