Category: Democratic institutions

Dictatorships always a step away from legitimacy crisis

     

  A ”third wave” of autocratization which first gained momentum in the mid 1990’s has developed across the world, says the annual report of the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project…. Read more »

Russia’s soft power set to divide Council of Europe’s democracies

     

The late Russian president Boris Yeltsin once said his country’s entry into the Council of Europe would help create a “new, greater Europe, free from dividing lines” and “united by common… Read more »

‘Warlord democrats’ threaten Africa’s democratic moment?

     

In the 60-plus years since the countries of sub-Saharan Africa started becoming independent, democracy there has advanced unevenly. Even as some countries in the region have grown into success stories,… Read more »

Why the Russian model will not work for Turkey

     

On June 23, somewhere between 8 and 9 million residents of Istanbul will go to the polls to elect their mayor—again. The leading contenders are Ekrem Imamoglu, a dynamic young… Read more »

‘Blitzkrieg of reforms’: But no magic formula for building Ethiopia’s democracy

     

  The ascension of Abiy Ahmed as Ethiopia’s Prime Minister on April 2, 2018, following the massive popular protests of the previous two years, has produced one of the most… Read more »

How Hungary’s bright-eyed Fidesz liberals became populist reactionaries

     

To say that Hungary is no longer a democracy is a stark claim and I have thought, read and looked hard before making it, notes Oxford University’s Timothy Garton Ash…. Read more »

Can new social contract restore faith in democracy?

     

Labor unions have played a critical role in democratic transitions, in sustaining democracy and  as civil society groups advancing pluralism and democratic norms. So the latest annual Global Rights Index from the… Read more »

The Edge of Democracy: corruption a catalyst for slippery slope to populism

     

One of the most important economic and security topics of our time—kleptocracy and how to mitigate it – can be addressed by using economic transparency, analyst Clay R. Fuller told the… Read more »

How to stop China exporting AI-driven digital authoritarianism

     

A United States senator is pushing to ban countries including China from an influential US government accuracy test of facial recognition technology, potentially opening up a new front in the escalating tech war… Read more »