Category: Democratic institutions

Populocracy: accomplices in democratic backsliding

     

Why do ordinary people vote to return to office undemocratic incumbents? New survey experiments in several countries suggest that many voters are willing to put their partisan interests above democratic… Read more »

Yes, civil society can help prevent democratic breakdowns

     

A quiet revolution is sweeping Eastern Europe. From the Czech Republic to Albania and from Slovakia to Romania, people are taking to the streets to demand greater transparency from their… Read more »

How the oldest hatred is corrupting democracy

     

On July 18, 1994, unknown attackers bombed the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (whose Spanish acronym is AMIA), a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. This still-unresolved terrorist attack killed 87… Read more »

Ukraine’s ‘unsung heroes’: NGOs leading democratic renewal

     

Ukraine’s citizens have high hopes for the recently-elected president, are less pessimistic over the country’s trajectory and support the Donbas region remaining part of Ukraine, according to a nationwide poll from… Read more »

Russia protests target a system ‘chemically incompatible with democracy’

     

Police in Moscow detained 39 protesters at a rally calling for opposition candidates to be allowed to run in September’s elections to the Russian capital’s parliament. Opposition leaders cried foul… Read more »

Bipartisan initiative for democratic resilience and renewal

     

Resilient democratic institutions, such as an independent judiciary and a functioning system of checks and balances within political systems, are critical for the successful control of public-sector corruption, writes Patricia… Read more »

Algeria’s divided democracy movement seeks end to impasse

     

In April 2019, Algerians ousted President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, becoming the fifth Arab country to topple a president since 2011, the Brookings Institution reports. Though successfully deposing the head of state,… Read more »

‘Backlash to the backlash’: tide turning against populism?

     

  The newly-elected prime minister of the center-right New Democracy party, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, promises a return to normality for the middle class after 4.5 years with the populist Syriza party… Read more »