Venezuela no longer a model nation
Venezuela was once a model nation, prosperous, advanced, democratic. Did Antonio Ledezma ever imagine that it could slide into tyranny and poverty — not just poverty but starvation itself? “No,… Read more »
Category: Democracy Assistance and Promotion
Malaysia’s ‘democratic disruption’ – and why it matters
Malaysia is somewhat of a puzzle, notes Marvin C. Ott, senior scholar at the Wilson Center and visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University. The Federation, as it is also… Read more »
Reform and renewal: democracy staging a comeback?
By almost any measure, 2018 has been a disastrous year for democracy, notes analyst Frida Ghitis. Authoritarian leaders have made decisive moves to tighten their grip on power by eroding practices indispensable… Read more »
China’s pre-Christmas crackdown raises alarm
A recent surge of police action against churches in China has raised concerns the government is getting even tougher on unsanctioned Christian activity, the BBC reports: Among those arrested are… Read more »
Clash of ideas key in political warfare against neo-authoritarians
Both Russia and China are governed by opaque, highly centralized and increasingly personalized governments. Political warfare, for such regimes, is second nature, according to Hal Brands, the Henry A. Kissinger… Read more »
‘Backward-looking critiques’ neglect neo-authoritarian threat
The titles of Stephen Walt’s The Hell of Good Intentions: America’s Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy and John Mearsheimer’s The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities give… Read more »
Disinformation’s ‘acute and strategic challenge for democratic systems’
With European Union elections closing in, EU leaders are calling for measures to tackle the deliberate spread of disinformation, Associated Press reports. “The spread of deliberate, large-scale, and systematic… Read more »
Bangladesh: crackdown as elections loom
Bangladesh security forces have been arresting and intimidating opposition figures and threatening freedom of expression in advance of national elections on December 30, 2018, Human Rights Watch said today: The… Read more »
Democracy under threat: risks and solutions in the era of disinformation
Populist politics and the distorting power of digital media are creating a “toxic brew,” that is poisoning democracy, says a prominent analyst. The “politics of resentment that we’re seeing in… Read more »
A ‘Free-World Strategy’ for countering neo-authoritarians
The world is seeing the rise of a neo-authoritarianism that seeks to roll back freedom where it currently resides and advance its own global reach. It is not monolithic and… Read more »