Category: Democratic institutions

‘The Demon in Democracy’? Resisting the illiberal temptation

     

Nearly fifty years after the Soviet empire’s collapse, the few remaining states adhering to the Stalinist model hold little allure, notes Gabriel Schoenfeld, the author of, among other books, Necessary… Read more »

Balkans split between East and West (but still room for engagement)

     

With the exception of Kosovo (53 percent), respondents from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), North Macedonia or Serbia generally do not feel that they belong definitively to either West or East, according to a new poll by the… Read more »

Signs of redemption in Arab Spring’s ‘second phase’?

     

What is the connection between Algeria, Egypt and Sudan, and do the rising protests worry the region’s autocratic leaders, France24 asks (above). In Algeria and Sudan, the protesters hold strong… Read more »

Armenia’s ‘historic opportunity’ for reform needs support

     

  Armenia’s 2018 Velvet Revolution is a historic opportunity for democratic development, a new analysis suggests. Popular protests led by Nikol Pashinian dislodged the country’s kleptocratic ruling elite, and a… Read more »

Reconciling artificial intelligence and human rights

     

  Around the world, concern about the consequences of our growing reliance upon artificial intelligence (AI) is rising. Perhaps the darkest concerns relate to development of AI by authoritarian regimes, some… Read more »

Egypt’s ‘2011 gains lost’ as Sisi extends authoritarian rule

     

    Egyptian voters approved (HT:Foreign Policy) constitutional changes, including an amendment that could permit President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to stay in office through 2030. But opposition groups rejected the vote,… Read more »

Can Russia get over its Ukraine obsession?

     

Russians have been so obsessed with Ukraine for five years to the point of forgetting about their own country’s problems, says analyst Liliya Shevtsova (below, left. HT: Paul Goble) and… Read more »

Ukraine shows possibility of swimming against populist tide

     

In our current moment of global illiberalism, Ukrainians’ election of Volodymyr Zelenskyr reminds us of the possibility of swimming against the tide of xenophobic populism, according to David N. Myers,… Read more »

‘No such thing as illiberal democracy’?

     

There’s no such thing as an illiberal democracy. It’s a contradiction in terms, according to Central European University’s Michael Ignatieff, You either have a democracy with those institutions or you… Read more »