Putin Vs. Putin?
Russian police briefly detained opposition figure Ilya Yashin (left) on Thursday, two days after he released a report alleging widespread corruption by President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, the Organized… Read more »
Author Archives: DemDigest
Populism – a danger to democracy
The conventional wisdom that populists want to bring politics closer to the people or even clamor for direct democracy could not be more mistaken, notes Jan Werner Müller, a professor… Read more »
Dictator’s playbook is Karimov’s legacy
Uzbekistan’s authoritarian president, Islam Karimov, leaves a legacy of political and religious repression, Human Rights Watch said today. His death provides a moment for concerned governments to press for concrete… Read more »
Post-election violence returns to haunt Gabon
Security forces in Gabon have arrested more than 1,000 people during a second day of violence following disputed presidential elections, the BBC reports: Three people were killed in clashes in… 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 »
Fukuyama on the ‘Children of Men’
Join Francis Fukuyama for a screening and discussion of Children of Men, the haunting 2006 adaptation of PD James’ dystopian novel (directed by Alfonso Cuarón) set in 2027, when all… Read more »
Colombia trading democracy for peace?
On a hot rainy day in August 2013, a group of young Colombians were celebrating the completion of a playground project in the village of Villarrica, Tolima. The project was… Read more »
Welcome to demokrasi: Turkey’s ‘new form’ of illiberal democracy
After a decade in power, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presides over a new form of democracy that the west neither likes nor understands: an authoritarian regime that exalts the… Read more »
Maidan ‘democratized Ukrainian culture’, bred resilient civil society
UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons Chaloka Beyani will visit Ukraine in the period from September 1 until September 9 for meetings with government representatives,… 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 »