Category: Democratic institutions

Democracy under threat in post-Wall Europe: Spirit of 1989 fighting back

     

The west’s mistake after 1989 was not that we celebrated what happened in central Europe – and subsequently in the Baltic republics and the former Soviet Union – as a… Read more »

Two lessons from belated recognition of Armenian ‘Thirty-Year Genocide’

     

Is “Never Again” just a slogan or a genuine call to action; could genocide happen again, and where? ask Bernard-Henri Lévy and Thomas S. Kaplan, co-founders of Justice for Kurds… Read more »

Democracies vs. dictatorships: A grand strategy

     

  While no country gets a perfect score on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), the top performing countries tend to be healthy democracies. The state of democracy in a country indicates… Read more »

‘Brazil Apart’: Who ended ‘false starts’ to democratization?

     

The election of leftist Alberto Fernández in Argentina could strain relations with Brazil—the other largest member of the Mercosur trade bloc, which recently struck a free-trade deal with the European… Read more »

‘Reasons for Hope’? Illiberal wave vs. democratic resilience

     

The illiberal wave in Poland and Hungary, in addition to the corruption in Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, and Slovakia can be easily used as excuses against further EU enlargement, notes Carnegie’s Judy Dempsey…. Read more »

A better way to counter astroturfing: Disinformation, technology, and democracy in transition

     

How can you distinguish real netizens from participants in a hidden influence campaign on Twitter? It’s not easy, say analysts Franziska Keller, David Schoch, Sebastian Stier and JungHwan Yang.  We examined eight hidden propaganda… Read more »

Beijing’s assertiveness betrays its desperation: CCP ‘might collapse’?

     

China’s ruling Communist Party is holding a key meeting this week amid a drastically slowing economy, ongoing protests in Hong Kong and pushback abroad against Beijing’s global ambitions, AP reports;… Read more »

Explaining the global protest wave

     

Sixty-three people died over the weekend in a crackdown by security forces against ongoing anti-government protests [HT: CFR], according to the semi-official Iraq High Commission for Human Rights. Iraq is… Read more »

Why ceding ground to dictators doesn’t work

     

The world quickly becomes unsafe in the absence of U.S. power and will. Ceding ground to dictators is destined to work about as well today as it did when it… Read more »

The Soviet Collapse and the Charm of Hindsight: Misplaced optimism for Russian democracy?

     

On leaving Moscow in May 1992, I wrote: “I do not think it is an act of mindless optimism to look forward to a future in which Russia has developed… Read more »