Category: Democratic institutions

Ukraine: potential for change – or will vested interests divert reform?

     

Now that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s new party, Servant of the People, has won a majority in Ukraine’s parliament, the potential for real change exists. But it comes with the risk… Read more »

Fostering open societies’ resilience to digital vulnerabilities

     

“They took your data. Then they took control.” The Great Hack, a new Netflix documentary exposes the dark underside of data exploitation through the personal odysseys of protagonists in the… Read more »

Renewal or revanche? Ukraine election starts a ‘test for benevolent populism’

     

Preliminary results in Ukraine’s parliamentary election suggest President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party is on course to win big as Ukrainians endorse his reform agenda. The Central Election Commission… Read more »

Dictators are ascendant. But democracy is still in demand.

     

Recent protests – from Hong Kong and Sudan to Central and Eastern Europe – demonstrate that large numbers of people around the world still want democracy enough to take to… Read more »

Existential threat? Iran and opposition ‘locked in lopsided confrontation’

     

At a time of rising tensions between the United States and Iran, various opposition factions within the Iran diaspora are competing to position themselves as a credible alternative to the… Read more »

Will the EU be a player or a playground? Solidarity of democratic West ‘matters as much as ever’

     

Today, the cohesion of the West matters as much as ever in the face of a newly assertive Russia and China, argues David Reynolds, professor of international history at the… Read more »

Democracy-focused cyber attacks targeting civil society

     

Election officials need more resources to address voting system security challenges, according to a new report from experts at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, Pitt Cyber,… Read more »

Africa’s ‘backsliding’ qualified by democratic resilience

     

Three decades after sub-Saharan Africa joined the “third wave,” democracy’s ability to endure has been established in many countries, but its quality remains a grave concern, notes Peter M. Lewis,… Read more »

How China’s ‘malign influence’ is corroding democracies

     

The primaries for Taiwan’s forthcoming presidential election are highlighting fears over China’s political influence. Pro-Beijing media are being credited with populist Han Kuo-Yu’s victory to lead the opposition, The Financial… Read more »