The beginning of the end for populism?
Greece was the first European country to elect a left-wing populist in the wake of the financial crisis and has showed a clear change of tack four years later. Is… Read more »
Category: Democratic Governance
Post-Erdoganism? Istanbul election shows resilience of Turkey’s democracy
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is grappling with the fallout of the ruling party’s big defeat in the Istanbul mayoral election, and his government faces pressure to release political prisoners,… Read more »
Democracies ‘not democratic’ enough, many in West see banks, social media as political threats
People really do care about democracy — and what is surprising is that that’s news. A new study, to be released today, says citizens are unambiguous when it comes to… Read more »
Dictatorships always a step away from legitimacy crisis
A ”third wave” of autocratization which first gained momentum in the mid 1990’s has developed across the world, says the annual report of the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project…. Read more »
‘Warlord democrats’ threaten Africa’s democratic moment?
In the 60-plus years since the countries of sub-Saharan Africa started becoming independent, democracy there has advanced unevenly. Even as some countries in the region have grown into success stories,… Read more »
‘Blitzkrieg of reforms’: But no magic formula for building Ethiopia’s democracy
The ascension of Abiy Ahmed as Ethiopia’s Prime Minister on April 2, 2018, following the massive popular protests of the previous two years, has produced one of the most… 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 »
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 »
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 »
Closing civic space – or changing civil society?
The trend of closing civic space crystallized at the beginning of this decade. In response, concerned international actors — including various bilateral aid agencies, foreign ministries, private foundations and international… Read more »