Category: Authoritarianism

Egyptian writer caught in government crackdown

     

The only reason Khadeega Gaafar knows that authorities extended her husband’s stay in prison is because he hasn’t come back home, The Washington Post’s Erin Cunningham writes: Gaafar’s husband, Egyptian… Read more »

Threat to liberal democracy’s primacy overstated?

     

The fact that the world’s richest country after World War II had a liberal economy and system of government had important implications not only for the creation of an open… Read more »

Bleak prospects for Putinism – and Russian democracy

     

Russian President Vladimir Putin used to seem invincible. Today, he and his regime look enervated, confused, and desperate. Increasingly, both Russian and Western commentators suggest that Russia may be on… Read more »

Myanmar: constitutional change on the agenda?

     

The party of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi has instructed its lawmakers not to leave the capital, rank-and-file members said, fueling speculation of a legal bid to sidestep a clause… Read more »

Dawning of a new era? Geopolitical and vox populi risks converge

     

Once largely confined to less-transparent emerging market economies, the post-global financial crisis saw the return of political risks to the advanced democracies as well, while challengers to Western liberalism continue… Read more »

Quiet consensus against Palestinian elections

     

It’s rare these days to find anything that Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, the U.S. and Israel agree on. And yet when it comes to elections there is a  choosing their… Read more »

Argentina’s Macri: taking a lead, making a difference

     

Argentina has gone further than other Latin American states to snub Venezuela’s Chavista establishment over its violations of human rights and democracy, notes analyst Mac Margolis: Recently elected President Mauricio… Read more »

Latin America: no sympathy for Venezuela’s Chavistas

     

When Venezuela’s head of state arrived in Quito, Ecuador, last week for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States summit, his pitch was almost unrecognizable. Gone were the encomiums… Read more »

Inward-looking EU ‘in hock to authoritarians’

     

Over the last five years, the European Council on Foreign Relations’ annual Scorecard has tracked the European Union’s diminishing ability to influence its neighbors. In 2015, the story became one… Read more »