Hybrid Putinism: ‘a mafia state with a totalitarian society’?
The question of what constitutes democracy did not have time to be hashed out in the Russian public sphere before that sphere began disappearing a decade and a half ago,… Read more »
Category: Analysis
Populism and protest: is Poland a harbinger?
The 2015 victory of Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) party is an example of the rise of contemporary authoritarian populism, say analysts Joanna Fomina and Jacek Kucharczyk. The PiS’s rise… Read more »
Kremlin-sponsored anti-Americanism a common denominator for Europe’s left and right
Over the past few years, anti-Americanism has become an integral part of any debate on foreign and domestic policy in Russia, notes Anton Barbashin, a managing editor at Intersection. You… Read more »
Autocrats using ‘toxic election’ to pour scorn on democracy
Russia, China and Iran are among several authoritarian regimes seeking to use the U.S. election as an opportunity to project soft power, to undermine the attractiveness of liberal democracy, and… Read more »
Ideologues and inertia stall Cuban reform
The Cuban economy is in tatters and the regime is backtracking on promises of reform, while human-rights groups say that beatings and detentions of dissidents have soared since the U.S…. Read more »
Is ‘Populist International’ Undermining Western Democracy?
Europe’s populists share ideas and ideology, friends and funders, notes analyst Anne Applebaum. They cross borders to appear at one another’s rallies. They have deep contacts in Russia — they… Read more »
‘Zealous democrats’? Call to redefine political Islam
The definition of ‘political Islam’ should be narrowed to recognize that many Islamic political movements share democratic values, according to a report by an influential committee of British MPs. The… Read more »
Media and Countering Violent Extremism: An Uneasy Relationship
The term “Countering Violent Extremism,” or CVE, is now commonly used to refer to a variety of tactics and strategies—usually employing tools for mass communication—to blunt the efforts of terrorists… Read more »
Repression without Borders: The Long Arm of Authoritarian Regimes
Immigrant groups remain subject to authoritarian repression even after they leave their homelands, according to new research by Dr. Dana Moss, a sociologist at the University of Pittsburgh. However, these… Read more »
Media freedoms under fire in Myanmar
With last November’s landslide election victory of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, the outlook for a successful democratic transition in Myanmar seems more positive than ever,… Read more »