Category: Democratic institutions

Political splintering and polarization creating ‘different swath of ideologies and interests’

     

This week’s elections for the European Parliament starkly demonstrate the limits of traditional European parties and their policies — and the splintering and polarization of the electoral base across Europe,… Read more »

Fresh options for democratic renewal?

     

The recent European parliamentary elections offered some optimistic liberals a chance to gloat, Ishaan Tharoor writes for The Washington Post: “The so-called populist wave, I think it was contained,” declared… Read more »

Why Solidarity prevailed: commitment to democratic norms

     

Karol Modzelewski, a historian who became a driving force in Solidarity, the labor movement that helped topple the Communist regime in Poland, and its first spokesman, died on April 28… Read more »

Strategies for aiding Venezuela: why Maduro’s reign will end

     

Talks between Venezuela’s government and opposition on ending months of crisis were under way in Norway, sources said Tuesday, but Washington insisted that the only item for discussion should be… Read more »

What – or who – is holding back Sudan’s transition?

     

Sudan’s alliance of opposition and protest groups held a general strike on Tuesday as tensions mounted with the country’s military rulers over the transition to democracy, Reuters reports. Pro-democracy and civil society… Read more »

Liberal democracy needs new strategies to prevail over populism

     

Populists have won nearly three in 10 seats in the European parliament, according to new analysis, which also shows how anti-establishment parties fell short of apocalyptic predictions, The Guardian reports:… Read more »

Tiananmen legacy? China’s new authoritarian equilibrium

     

In the realm of global power distribution, as in any area where human agency remains paramount, trends need not become outcomes, notes Andrew A. Michta, dean of the College of… Read more »

Mainstream must avoid populists’ Faustian embrace

     

  Liberal democrats should avoid the populists’ Faustian embrace, research suggests. Cosying up to populists rarely ends well for moderates; political scientists who have studied such things have warned of… Read more »

Modi’s ‘majoritarian state’ threatens India’s multi-party democracy

     

This week’s election in the world’s two most populous democratic land masses — India and Europe — confirmed the global advance of ethno-nationalism, according to FT analyst Edward Luce, author of… Read more »