Category: Democratic institutions

Disinformation weaponized to discredit democracy – Kofi Annan Commission

     

Social media has become a hotbed of extremism, used to undermine democracy, a think-tank said on Wednesday, calling for reforms to restore trust in government and banish fringe elements, The… Read more »

The Instinct for Freedom: Democracy’s best and worst

     

The Economist Intelligence Unit has published the twelfth edition of its Democracy Index which rates democracy levels in 165 independent states and two territories. The research is based on criteria including civil liberties, the… Read more »

Democratic consolidation an ‘obsolete’ assumption in new strategic context

     

After 70 years of being largely hand in hand in promoting democracy and capitalism around the world, the United States and Europe are now at odds over trade, climate change,… Read more »

Why liberal democracy is on the defensive

     

To understand why liberal democracy is on the defensive, there is no better place to start than the 30th-anniversary edition of the Journal of Democracy, the  flagship publication of the… Read more »

Another bad year for global democracy, but protests show potential for renewal, says EIU

     

Global democracy has had another bad year, but popular protests show the potential for democratic renewal, The Economist Intelligence Unit reports. After showing stagnation in 2018, the EIU’s Democracy Index… Read more »

Populism: growing threat or space for democratic renewal?

     

Populist politics and authoritarian resurgence will be growing risks over the next year, according to a new report. The risks posed by populist and nativist agendas will grow in 2020,… Read more »

The return of ideology? Western societies’ resilience ‘not a given’

     

America must grapple with the reality that the unipolar moment is ending, the Texas National Security Review suggests.  A new bipolarity is fast emerging from the political wreckage of the… Read more »

Memory laws – ‘a litmus test for new democracies’

     

In his 2019 book, “After the Fall: Crisis, Recovery and the Making of a New Spain,” Tobias Buck of the Financial Times reports that in 2018 there were 1,143 Spanish streets named for Franco… Read more »

How to fix troubled democracies: resilience & adaptability

     

There is no single explanation for democracy’s travails. Rather, a set of forces have come together to make it more difficult to knit together cohesive societies and governing coalitions. The… Read more »

China’s Belt-and-Road push for global sway – renewed or ‘overhyped’?

     

As Chinese leader Xi Jinping landed in Myanmar on Friday he hoped to send a clear signal that his country is back in the driver’s seat. Having backed Myanmar, also… Read more »