Category: Democratic Governance

What democratic renewal looks like?

     

  Emmanuel Macron, the new French president, is about to achieve something extraordinary: His brand-new centrist party, Republic on the Move, is on track to win a sweeping, unprecedented majority… Read more »

Can the West survive current turmoil?

     

The West’s current upheaval is captured in two books by British journalists hailing from publications known for promoting free peoples and free markets. In “The Fate of the West,” by former Economist… Read more »

Disgust over corruption threatens Tunisia’s trajectory, MENA stability

     

Armed with banners, placards and cigarettes, dozens of protesters gathered in the Tunisian capital Tunis on Sunday for the first-ever demonstration of its kind – the right not to fast for Ramadan. Popular perceptions… Read more »

Prospects for democratic renewal 35 years after Reagan’s Westminster Address

     

Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright turned president in Czechoslovakia, had a unique ability to find hope in the bleakest of situations, notes Carl Gershman, president of the National Endowment for… Read more »

Democracies must not fall for terrorism’s ‘strategy of provocation’

     

How can democracies combat terrorism without undermining liberal democratic norms and institutions? Following the terrorist attacks in Manchester and London, British Prime Minister Theresa May has proposed restricting internet freedom… Read more »

Counting the cost of corruption: citizen movements demanding transparency

     

Thousands of Moroccans marched in a northern town to protest against injustice and corruption this week, Reuters reports: Political protests are rare in Morocco, but tensions in al-Hoceima have been… Read more »

Democratic backsliding: the perils of polarization

     

If democratic backsliding were to occur in the United States, it would not take the form of a coup d’état; there would be no declaration of martial law or imposition of single-party rule,… Read more »

Time to make countering kleptocracy a priority

     

Following the ousting of Pravin Gordhan as South Africa’s finance minister in the recent cabinet reshuffle and the downgrade by ratings agencies, fears that South Africa under President Jacob Zuma… Read more »

Turkey ‘will never be the same’ after referendum

     

On April 16, Turkish voters will be casting votes in the most consequential referendum of modern Turkish history, notes Henri J. Barkey, the director of the Middle East Program at… Read more »

Russia Beyond Putin: Is fundamental change possible?

     

Is fundamental change in Russia possible? Would it overhaul the system, or modify or improve it without transforming it? And if change were to occur, will it necessarily be change Western… Read more »