Category: Civil Society

Egypt’s ‘2011 gains lost’ as Sisi extends authoritarian rule

     

    Egyptian voters approved (HT:Foreign Policy) constitutional changes, including an amendment that could permit President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to stay in office through 2030. But opposition groups rejected the vote,… Read more »

Can Russia get over its Ukraine obsession?

     

Russians have been so obsessed with Ukraine for five years to the point of forgetting about their own country’s problems, says analyst Liliya Shevtsova (below, left. HT: Paul Goble) and… Read more »

‘No such thing as illiberal democracy’?

     

There’s no such thing as an illiberal democracy. It’s a contradiction in terms, according to Central European University’s Michael Ignatieff, You either have a democracy with those institutions or you… Read more »

China’s ‘Belt and Road’ inhibiting democratic consolidation

     

The Chinese government should ensure the projects it finances or engages in under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) respect human rights, Human Rights Watch said today: On April 25-27,… Read more »

Ukraine’s ‘Electoral Maidan’: good news for democracy, bad news for the Kremlin

     

Political novice and comedian Volodymyr Zelensky won a sweeping victory [HT: Foreign Policy] in Ukraine’s elections what is seen as a protest vote against Ukraine’s establishment. He beat out incumbent President… Read more »

Supporting a United Ukraine

     

President Petro Poroshoenko and comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the two candidates in Ukraine’s runoff presidential election, face off in an official debate in Kiev on Friday (RFE/RL:CFR). The vote will be… Read more »

How democracies can prevent, withstand, and counter assaults

     

The upcoming European Parliament contests are one of the largest, most complex democratic undertakings on record, as twenty-eight EU members will choose leaders for the next half-decade, notes Erik Brattberg,… Read more »

Authoritarian challenge is the ‘defining question of our time’?

     

Democracy’s global travails continue to mount, notes a leading observer. What looked as recently as a decade ago to be real democratic progress in countries as diverse as Brazil, Hungary, South Africa, and Turkey has… Read more »

‘Dangerous backsliding’: radicals use Indonesia’s democracy to undermine it

     

  Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo and former military general Prabowo Subianto will face off in a presidential election on Wednesday (Nikkei/CFR), with official results expected take up to a month to… Read more »

Illiberal democracy’s ‘existential threat’ to values and institutions

     

There is no democracy without liberty, and “illiberal democracy” poses an existential threat to European values and institutions, according to a new analysis. Popular discontent is fueled by a pervasive… Read more »