Search Results for: Civil Society

Moscow in Movement: Record protests present new challenge to Putin’s dominance

     

An estimated fifty thousand people in Moscow (Moscow Times/CFR) protested the barring of independent candidates from the ballot in an upcoming local election in what was one of the country’s… Read more »

Another Arab Spring? Not if, but when

     

The social history of the MENA region is a history of social mobilization and the emergence of civil society. Across the Arab world, ordinary citizens have collectively engaged in resistance,… Read more »

Will Ethiopia’s liberalization lead to democratization?

     

Rising ethnic tensions threaten to undermine the prospects of democratization in Ethiopia, say Freedom House analysts Jon Temin and Yoseph Badwaza.  Managing expectations, maintaining stability, and initiating a pluralist order… Read more »

Two scenarios for Venezuela as political stand-off accelerates economic implosion

     

The United States will bar two Venezuelan officials accused of human rights violations from traveling to the U.S. in its latest action to pressure Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro into stepping… Read more »

Why elections are not necessarily democratizing

     

In Malawi’s presidential election in May, incumbent President Peter Mutharika narrowly won reelection. February’s Senegalese election was quite different, with incumbent Macky Sall easily claiming victory. Although Malawians continue to… Read more »

A dissident’s tale: How to help Iran’s democracy movement

     

Opposing the Iranian regime doesn’t have to mean sanctioning its banks and oil, argues Abbas Milani, the director of Stanford University’s Iran studies program. Milani cannot be called a squish… Read more »

Democracy vs. kleptocracy

     

Democracy may be facing a crisis, but…. Now is a time “for resolve, not panic,” says Stanford University’s Larry Diamond. In his  latest book, Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage,… Read more »

Do women human rights defenders hold the key to a democratic Sudan?

     

Since the successful removal of former president Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s struggle for civilian rule has the world holding its breath, writes Julie Snyder, an adjunct fellow with the Human Rights… Read more »

Is AMLO taking Mexico ‘down a dangerous populist path’?

     

  Mexico is a relatively young democracy with historically weak institutions including a corruption-riven judiciary and powerful, politically-motivated unions. Now some investors and analysts fear that in pursuing the mirage… Read more »