Category: Democracy Assistance and Promotion

Post-Brexit representative democracy ‘an endangered species’?

     

  “The British vote against the European Union represented the revolt of the poor against the rich, the provinces against the metropolis, the losers of globalization against the elite.” I’m… Read more »

Challenge the narratives of civil society ‘demonization’

     

Civil society groups have been subject to “widespread demonization” recent years, and 2015 was a “dismal one for civil society around the world,” according to a report by an international… Read more »

Three paths to instability in Zimbabwe

     

  Zimbabwean authorities this week imposed restrictions on the import of a range of goods, from bottled water to fertilizers and canned beans, while local businesses complain of not being… Read more »

Push back against the tyrants: how to counter authoritarian assault on civil society

     

With rising awareness that simply holding elections does not a democracy make, investments in civil society are central to democracy promotion—helping to provide the education, information, and accountability without which… Read more »

With Brexit, ‘Euroskepticism Arrives: Marginal No More’

     

In light of the raging debates over the causes and consequences of the UK’s Brexit vote, it is worth revisiting two prescient and illuminating essays from the Journal of Democracy…. Read more »

Activist ban highlights ‘existential threat’ to Egypt’s civil society

     

  An Egyptian activist was prevented from flying to Beirut for a women’s rights conference on Monday after passport control officials told her she was banned from traveling, Reuters reports:… Read more »

Will new Archbishop transform Cuban Church?

     

In the mid-1970s, a recently ordained priest trekked the Cuban countryside, defying the communist government by distributing hand-printed religious pamphlets to townspeople bold enough to open their doors, The New… Read more »

Brexit a win for Putin

     

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia received the geopolitical equivalent of manna from heaven when British voters opted to leave the European Union, speeding his long-term goal of weakening the… Read more »

Religious restrictions, hostilities decline despite rise in religious terrorism

     

  Worldwide, both government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion decreased modestly from 2013 to 2014 despite a rise in religion-related terrorism, according to Pew Research Center’s latest… Read more »

West shows Ukraine fatigue, Putin wages hybrid war

     

  Even a brief analysis of the accusations being made by Russia against NATO shows that Moscow’s characterization of NATO as a hostile and dangerous organization has long been based… Read more »