‘Mainland-ization’ undermining Hong Kong’s democracy
Hong Kong lagged behind its neighbors such as Taiwan, South Korea and the Philippines in terms of rights and freedoms enjoyed by individuals, an annual study by a US-based research… Read more »
Author Archives: DemDigest
Are falling oil prices good for democracy?
Authoritarian regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Russia have had to slash government spending because of the drop in oil prices, notes Erik Voeten, Associate Professor of Geopolitics and Justice in… Read more »
Elections highlight ‘Struggle for the Soul of Iran’
Iran has excluded Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the founder of the Islamic republic and a cleric with ties to reformist politicians, from contesting elections to the country’s powerful Assembly of… Read more »
How Ethiopia silences independent voices
After a tense year marked by widely-criticized elections in which Ethiopia’s ruling party won 100 percent of parliamentary seats, 2015 concluded with yet more repression in the East African nation,… Read more »
Poland locked in battle of traditionalists vs modernizers
Three months after it voted for change, Poland is wracked by crisis. Just 38 per cent handed a victory to Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s national conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) and, for the… Read more »
Vietnam must end ‘thuggish’ repression, says rights group
Despite renewed economic growth and progress on a number of social indicators in 2015, the government of Vietnam continued to crack down on independent writers, bloggers, and rights activists deemed… Read more »
‘Politics of fear’ threatens rights, prompts civil society ‘choke-out’
The politics of fear led to a global roll-back of human rights and a great civil society choke-out during 2015, according to the 659-page World Report 2016 from Human… Read more »
Democracy takes global ‘battering’
Global democracy has endured a battering over the past decade, and those who hoped for a brighter century may be wondering when to expect relief, note Mark Lagon, the president… Read more »
Time for democracy aid to ‘look homeward’?
Giving advice to people in another country about how to organize their political life is always a sensitive endeavor, notes Thomas Carothers, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment… Read more »
Democrats empowering Venezuela’s poor – for real
Now that Hugo Chávez’s old adversaries have taken over Venezuela’s Parliament, they are adopting one of his populist tactics and doing it better. They want to give away the deeds… Read more »