Category: Democratic institutions

Will democracy crisis empower Latin America’s military?

     

Can Latin America’s  elected civilian leaders regain the trust of their publics and deliver on the promises of democratic governance? Can militaries escape the pressures of stepping into power during… Read more »

A case for liberal democratic nationalism?

     

Viewed from today’s perspective, it seems clear that liberalism and nationalism are enemies. But that was not always the case. As recently as 1989, liberalism and nationalism were allies in… Read more »

Mobilizing for democracy? Five myths about protest movements

     

Lebanese security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons Sunday to disperse hundreds of protesters for a second straight day, ending what started as a peaceful rally in… Read more »

What went wrong in Central and Eastern Europe? A case for ‘pessoptimism’

     

There’s has been extensive and ongoing debate about “what went wrong in Central and Eastern Europe” and what explains its various forms of illiberalism and democratic decline. A variety of,… Read more »

Africa’s ‘engines of democracy’

     

By 2040—a decade before Africa’s population is forecast to reach 2.1 billion, or double what it is today—the continent will become majority urban. That means over a billion people in… Read more »

Can Japan help to reshape the liberal international order?

     

Can Japan help defend and revive the “liberal order” – the system of guiding principles that governed conduct among western democracies after World War II – asks Paul Nadeau, an adjunct fellow… Read more »

China’s corrosive capitalism conflicts with West’s liberal meritocratic model

     

China’s economic success undermines the West’s claim that there is a necessary link between capitalism and liberal democracy, argues Branko Milanovic, a Senior Scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality… Read more »

‘Zero Corruption’: feasible or fantasy?

     

A court in Bishkek has ruled to freeze the bank accounts of RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, locally known as Azattyk, its correspondent, and the Kyrgyz news site Kloop following their joint… Read more »

A Season of Caesarism?

     

In 1978, the UC Berkeley political scientist Jyotirindra Das Gupta gave the term “A Season of Caesars” to the wave of authoritarian emergency regimes that were sprouting up in Asia… Read more »