How the coronavirus tests democracy
While the coronavirus pandemic is many stresses that afflict democracy in Europe, it is also propelling democratic efforts in a number of areas, notes Richard Youngs, a senior fellow in the… Read more »
Category: Democratic Governance
The ongoing democratic experiment: Reason for hope
Recent trends – not last democratic backsliding and autocratic resurgence – are enough to make one think that David Stasavage’s new book should have been about the rise and subsequent… Read more »
How Covid-19 may ’embed’ the new authoritarianism
The Covid-19 pandemic has been talked of as a historical rupture, igniting system change. Yet, the nature of the new world being born is still far from certain, and this… Read more »
Serbia ‘becoming a one-party system’?
Serbia’s president declared a landslide victory Sunday for his right-wing party in a parliamentary vote held amid concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus and a boycott of much… Read more »
Don’t underestimate resilience of the smart new despotisms
The new despotism defies the standard distinction between democracy and authoritarianism, argues John Keane (above), Professor of Politics at the University of Sydney and WZB (Berlin). The “whip-smart resilience” of… Read more »
Hungary vote an ‘optical illusion’ and ‘peacock dance’
Hungarian lawmakers have voted in favour of repealing extraordinary powers granted to Prime Minister Viktor Orban to fight the coronavirus, the BBC reports: Members of parliament unanimously requested the… Read more »
Democracy in demand – but not in supply?
Democracy’s crisis is not about people losing faith in democracy – it’s about people demanding more. That is the conclusion of the Democracy Perception Index (DPI), which claims to be… Read more »
Universal values at stake as autocrats mock ‘fragmented democracy’
This is an extraordinarily tense moment in the United States as authoritarian states jeer at us, and friends pity us, says Kori Schake, director of foreign and defense policy at the… Read more »
‘The Long Reach of Racism’ distorts freedom and citizenship
America is the only modern nation that had slavery in its midst from the very beginning. The institution and its neo-slavery successor, Jim Crow, played a formative role in… Read more »
Post-Covid democracy: Renewal with Chinese characteristics?
What will the post-Covid state look like? For citizens in the world’s democracies, the choice ultimately will be between various forms of abdication and concerted action, says a leading analyst. … Read more »