Category: Democratic degradation

Russia and China seek new ‘client states’?

     

U.S. President Barack Obama raised eyebrows around the world with a difficult-to-interpret reference to Ukraine in his final annual State of the Union address that lumped the post-Soviet state and… Read more »

Is Poland a failing democracy?

     

Poland’s new right-wing government faces international demands to roll back radical changes to the country’s institutions, but the odds that it will suffer any serious punishment from Brussels are close to zero, analyst Jan Cienski… Read more »

Turkey: Erdogan’s ‘dangerous dance with radicalism’

     

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s flirtation with radical Islam in Syria and march from liberal democratic reformer to illiberal populist authoritarian have confused Americans trying to deal with Turkey, which… Read more »

South Africa faces toughest test since transition

     

South Africa faces what some believe is its toughest economic period since it made the transition to democracy in 1994, The Financial Times reports: Some of mineral-rich South Africa’s woes… Read more »

Twilight of the Putin Era?

     

While the Kremlin’s new national security strategy is not devoid of foreign policy goals, it is actually heavily focused on Russia itself, notes Olga Oliker. In this context, it’s notable… Read more »

Anxious Dictators, Wavering Democracies

     

The findings of Freedom in the World 2016, Freedom House’s annual assessment of political rights and civil liberties, will be released on Wednesday, January 27, at 9:00-10:30 a.m. This year’s report… Read more »

Has Arab Spring mutated into sectarian strife?

     

After Saudi Arabia’s execution of leading Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr sparked a violent protest at the Saudi Embassy in Iran’s capital, Tehran, Saudi Arabia quickly severed ties with its longtime regional… Read more »

Democracy’s depressing paradox: Fukuyama’s ‘Political Order and Political Decay’

     

Francis Fukuyama’s “Political Order and Political Decay,” a whirlwind tour of modern political development from the French Revolution to the present, is nothing if not ambitious, says Columbia University’s Sheri… Read more »