Category: coronavirus

China’s subversion of international norms could generate chaos

     

The coronavirus pandemic has crystallized the critical connection between human rights, accountability and public health. China’s ruthless suppression of free speech and its lack of transparency gave the disease wings… Read more »

Democracy vs Authoritarianism Under COVID-19

     

Movements and regimes inspired by liberal ideals are increasingly finding themselves on the defensive in a world increasingly vulnerable to authoritarian mischief, notes analyst Brian Stewart. Although excessive centralization is… Read more »

Pondering pandemic’s political potency

     

The world’s leading democracies will not be judged by how they initially responded to Covid-19, but by their success in post-crisis reconstruction, according to a leading analyst. We always knew… Read more »

Failing the COVID-19 test of democratic governance

     

  Want to learn more about how the spread of #deepfake videos & #disinformation threaten our democratic elections? Watch our session w/ @Microsoft on the different strategies that social media… Read more »

How democracy will survive Covid pandemic

     

  Andrew James Klassen and Roberto Stefan Foa discuss the role that government effectiveness in handling Covid-19 will play in restoring or undermining faith in democracy. https://t.co/dNKH9TGsJW — PACE Funders… Read more »

Post-Covid democratic legitimacy demands ‘re-imagining social contracts’?

     

Václav Havel was spot on when he wrote: ‘The natural disadvantage of democracy is that it is extremely tiring to those who mean it honestly, while it allows almost everything… Read more »

‘When the World Wasn’t Looking’: An inflection point for democracy?

     

From anti-science conspiracy theories to state-sponsored disinformation, the United Nations warns that an “infodemic” of half-truths and falsehoods is undermining the effort to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic. How is social… Read more »

Covid crisis exposes ‘chimera of authoritarian competence’

     

The novel coronavirus pandemic will only exacerbate recent anti-democratic trends, according to a new policy brief from the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI). While “it is neither foreseeable how fast and… Read more »

Yet another regime using Covid pandemic to tighten its grip

     

Egypt’s military-backed government is using the coronavirus pandemic to tighten its grip on the country, human rights activists say. In recent weeks, authorities have ordered up punishments, including prison terms,… Read more »

Locking Down or Rising Up? Protest movements adapt to COVID-19

     

With #COVID19 inflicting severe economic pain in countries around the world and brutally exposing governance failures, the numbers of unsettled people are on track to rise rather than fall despite… Read more »