South Africa lurching between democracy and despotism
Jacob Zuma presides over a political paradox, argues Richard Calland, associate professor in public law at the University of Cape Town. The nation he leads is at long last becoming… Read more »
Search Results for: development
USAID must save Afrobarometer, say former Africa Bureau officials
One of Africa’s most important democracy advocacy organizations is in trouble because of a sharp decrease in donor funding, according to several former Assistant Secretaries in the State Department’s Bureau… Read more »
Cuba censoring text messages with words like ‘democracy’
Cuban dissidents said Monday that Raúl Castro’s communist government is censoring mobile text messages that contain certain words, including “democracy” and “human rights,” Reuters reports: Text messages that included… Read more »
Proscribing pollster, Kremlin ‘takes control of the narrative’
Russia’s only major independent pollster, the Levada Centre, has been designated as a “foreign agent”, the Russian Justice Ministry said on Monday, two weeks ahead of nationwide parliamentary elections. Foreign… Read more »
Russia: a ‘new authoritarian equilibrium’?
President Putin’s United Russia party represents the interests of organised crime, from the lowest rungs of local government to the highest echelons of power, according to an opposition report. The… Read more »
Opaque Uzbekistan confronts transition anxieties
Whether Islam Karimov, who has ruled Uzbekistan with astounding brutality for the past 27 years, is dead or alive, his era is almost certainly drawing to a close. Two questions… Read more »
Creativity needed in defending, funding civil society
In the wake of the widespread authoritarian crackdown, we are witnessing a confluence of factors affecting the sustainability of different aspects of civil society (its organizations, actors and actions) in… Read more »
Palestine: crackdown on journalists, civil society activists
The Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and Gaza are arresting, abusing, and criminally charging journalists and activists who express peaceful criticism of the authorities, Human Rights Watch said today:… Read more »
Nepal a ‘surprising focal point’ for democratic movement
Though strategically located between Asia’s two giants, India and China, Nepal’s political importance has derived more from its tortuous process of democratic transition over the last quarter of a century… Read more »
How Poland’s Law and Justice Party is threatening democracy
After simmering for nine months, the tension between Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and the country’s highest court, the Constitutional Tribunal, is coming to a boil, says R…. Read more »