Category: Civil Society

Hungary ‘copying Russia’ by targeting university?

     

As an American scholar of Soviet history, Charles D. Shaw thought he understood authoritarianism before he moved to Hungary in 2015 to teach at Central European University, the New York Times reports: “Coming from… Read more »

Evidence confirms Russian hackers, fake news targeting Europe’s elections

     

The campaign of the French presidential election candidate Emmanuel Macron has been targeted by what appear to be the same Russian operatives responsible for previous attacks on elections in Western democracies election,… Read more »

Is Russia’s anti-corruption movement Putin’s Kryptonite?

     

  Russian President Vladimir Putin today criticized opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, indirectly accusing him of using his anticorruption campaign to gain political prominence, RFE/RL reports: Without naming Navalny in comments… Read more »

Does democracy matter? Call for renewed conviction

     

Today’s publication of a new book on democracy support occurs as we approach the 35th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s Westminster Address – the founding text for the democracy assistance effort,… Read more »

Poll shows radical Islamization challenging Indonesia’s democracy

     

The Christian governor of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, lost a bitterly contested race on Wednesday that was widely seen as a test of religious and ethnic tolerance in the world’s… Read more »

Free expression advocates recognized

     

Efforts to promote free expression around the world were recognized at last night’s 2017 Freedom of Expression Awards. Index on Censorship presented awards in four categories: arts, campaigning, digital activism… Read more »

What the beginning of the end of democracy looks like

     

The United States has been the modern world’s most influential country and has promoted democracy passively by serving as a model and actively through its diplomatic efforts, aid, and even military and covert action… Read more »

Democratic backsliding: the perils of polarization

     

If democratic backsliding were to occur in the United States, it would not take the form of a coup d’état; there would be no declaration of martial law or imposition of single-party rule,… Read more »

Putin’s ‘formidable influence machine’ at work in French poll

     

Russia, or at least its state-controlled news media, has been interfering in the French presidential election, the New York Times reports: Cécile Vaissié, a professor of Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet… Read more »