The relative weakness of some Western leaders appearing at the World Economic Forum in Davos reflects the recent fragmentation of electoral support on which democratic leaders rely, unlike in more… Read more »
India has traditionally been reluctant to engage in democracy promotion, notes James Crabtree, an associate professor of practice at the National University of Singapore and author of “The Billionaire… Read more »
Citizens in authoritarian states know what they can read or publish, see or hear. In places such as China, Russia, Iran, Turkey and Egypt, semi-free private discussion and small-circulation publishing… Read more »
Only a third of Americans now trust their government “to do what is right”—a decline of 14 percentage points from last year, according to a new report by the communications marketing… Read more »
Global confidence in US leadership has fallen to a new low, according to a Gallup poll conducted across 134 countries, CNN reports: The US rating is down nearly 20 points from… Read more »
The ‘Western ideal’ – a concept embodied in the democratic processes and free-market economies of the West – has long been a powerful draw for others, including originally for the… Read more »
China’s influence operations are “strategic and multifaceted”, The Guardian notes: The National Endowment for Democracy recently described other aspects as “sharp power”: the effort by authoritarian states not just to attract support… Read more »
A new report from the independent watchdog organization Freedom House says that democratic principles such as election integrity and freedom of the press are weakening globally for the 12th consecutive… Read more »
Ukraine is haltingly evolving away from a Russia-style, post-Soviet kleptocracy. But the allure of no-strings-attached Chinese cash could dampen the imperative for making reforms that Western aid packages, through their… Read more »
Despite the threat posed to democracy by various forms of populism and authoritarianism, “there is simply no grand ideological alternative to a liberal international order,” argues Princeton University’s G. John… Read more »