Savvy autocrats have deployed the three P’s of populism, polarization and post-truth to cultivate ‘stealthocracy’ – maintaining liberal democracy’s institutional architecture while gutting the substance of such norms as accountability,… Read more »
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa slammed French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Thursday in a joint op-ed for Le Monde,… Read more »
Western democracies are demonstrating fresh resolve in defending Ukraine, but still need to demonstrate sufficient resilience by addressing domestic backsliding, according to a new Freedom House report. While some democratic… Read more »
Liberal democracy is back to where it was in 1989, says the most recent report from the Varieties of Democracy Institute (V–Dem) – in other words, the massive gains in… Read more »
Now freighted with evidence of mass atrocities and war crimes, the Russo-Ukrainian war is the strongest geopolitical and moral earthquake in Europe since the Cold War. The effects will thus… Read more »
“If [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is successful in undermining Ukrainian independence and democracy, the world will return to an era of aggressive and intolerant nationalism reminiscent of the early… Read more »
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is poised to win Sunday’s general election by a comfortable margin, though not by enough to secure another supermajority, reports suggest. In a video speech to European Union leaders… Read more »
Just as the West overlooked abuses by anti-communist allies during the cold war, it will make ugly compromises now to counter Vladimir Putin’s revanchist Russia, The Economist suggests. Doing so… Read more »
In his infamous Transylvania speech announcing Hungary in 2014 as an “illiberal state,” Viktor Orban also called Russia—along with China, Singapore, India, and Turkey—a model for Hungarian society. But the… Read more »
Putin’s aggression in Ukraine has created a window of strategic opportunity for Washington and its allies. If the democracies don’t waste the moment, then a lasting result of the Ukraine… Read more »