Category: Authoritarianism

‘Firm Up Democracy’s Soft Underbelly’: Autocrats winning war of ideas

     

The authoritarian resurgence will remain a major global risk in 2020 due to the many economic and social consequences of autocratic governance, according to Global Risk Intelligence. While some exceptions… Read more »

‘Westlessness’: Liberal democracies’ malaise allows for renewal

     

A revitalization of the West in the world must start at home. But, in contrast to autocratic regimes, liberal democracies have built-in mechanisms that allow for course corrections and democratic… Read more »

‘Nowhere To Hide’: Who’s proliferating digital authoritarianism?

     

Is China pursuing a grand strategy to systematically proliferate digital authoritarian tools? China’s efforts vary by country, local context, and its own interests, argues Steven Feldstein, Chair of Public Affairs… Read more »

Is ‘fear of being outnumbered’ driving illiberalism?

     

The right-wing politics coming to the fore in Hungary, Poland, and other postcommunist countries has less to do with the reassertion of primordial nationalist and illiberal identities than with a… Read more »

New strategy aims to protect democracy from foreign influence ops

     

To counter foreign influence campaigns’ efforts to undermine democratic institutions, a new report calls for strengthening government partnerships with social media and technology companies, and doing better at identifying and… Read more »

Why democracy support matters (and is not interference)

     

Cynics believe America’s global engagement is similar to what adversaries like China and Russia do, feeding the perception that the United States and Russia are the same on election interference,… Read more »

How China’s ‘controlocracy’ lost control

     

  In his 2016 book The Perfect Dictatorship: China in the 21st Century, Norwegian political scientist Stein Ringen describes contemporary China as a “controlocracy,” arguing that its system of government has… Read more »

How Yalta shaped the post-war world

     

Yalta shaped the post-war world, The Guardian reports. Seventy-five years ago, on February 4-11, 1945, US President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin met… Read more »

Finding a way out of digital authoritarianism

     

  While democrats once believed that innovations in information and communications technology and data analysis would promote more open societies, the actual effects of these tools have been mixed, according… Read more »

China’s ‘biological Chernobyl’ puts CCP legitimacy on the line

     

In the fall of 2017, Xi took the podium at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People to claim that China’s version of one-party autocracy offered an option for “countries that… Read more »