Category: Democracy Assistance and Promotion

How Hungary’s bright-eyed Fidesz liberals became populist reactionaries

     

To say that Hungary is no longer a democracy is a stark claim and I have thought, read and looked hard before making it, notes Oxford University’s Timothy Garton Ash…. Read more »

Can new social contract restore faith in democracy?

     

Labor unions have played a critical role in democratic transitions, in sustaining democracy and  as civil society groups advancing pluralism and democratic norms. So the latest annual Global Rights Index from the… Read more »

Morsi’s ‘mixed legacy’ puts Muslim Brotherhood back in focus

     

Mohamed Morsi did a poor job as Egypt’s president before being ousted in a bloody military coup by the country’s current dictator, Abdel Fatah al-Sissi. But the gross mistreatment Mr…. Read more »

How to stop China exporting AI-driven digital authoritarianism

     

A United States senator is pushing to ban countries including China from an influential US government accuracy test of facial recognition technology, potentially opening up a new front in the escalating tech war… Read more »

Democracy’s development, decay, or death knell?

     

Western populism is impossible to understand as a direct result of domestic problems. Rather, it is a reaction to the global redistribution of power that is still taking shape, argues… Read more »

China blinks: what Beijing’s Hong Kong retreat says about Taiwan’s future

     

Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers aren’t satisfied with leader Carrie Lam’s public apology for how the government handled a highly unpopular extradition bill. Legislator Claudia Mo said Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s apology… Read more »

Developing democracy with urgency and resolve

     

The global political environment has become more fraught, and democracy is facing threats and pressures that were mostly unforeseen a decade ago, according to a new report. The field of… Read more »

‘Identity and Democracy’: an ominous sign of populist international

     

In the wake of the recent European Parliament elections, Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini’s MEPs have teamed up with other nationalist parties across the EU to form the biggest… Read more »

Democratic renewal can counter ‘Ill Winds’ of autocracy and complacency

     

Larry Diamond has spent 40 years circumnavigating the globe promoting democracy in Nigeria, Venezuela and some 70 other countries. Yet today he is aghast, notes Gary J. Bass, a professor… Read more »

Challenging illiberal democracy’s ‘post truth’ world. Is the tide shifting?

     

Illiberal regimes have had a good run, but perhaps the tide is shifting. “Protesters poured into [Hong Kong’s] streets for a second Sunday despite the suspension of a controversial bill to expand… Read more »