Category: Democratization

Does Democracy Matter? The United States and Global Democracy Support

     

Although most would agree that US interests are better served in the long run by the spread of democracy abroad, some argue that “hard” security interests must always take precedence,… Read more »

Russia Beyond Putin: Is fundamental change possible?

     

Is fundamental change in Russia possible? Would it overhaul the system, or modify or improve it without transforming it? And if change were to occur, will it necessarily be change Western… Read more »

Populist infection need not mean democratic deconsolidation

     

  Whether recent signs of democratic de-consolidation are a predictor of a possible non-democratic backlash, is far from being ascertained, according to Daniele Archibugi, professor of innovation, governance and public… Read more »

S. M. Lipset & democracy’s fragility

     

  If Seymour Martin Lipset had lived, he would have celebrated his 95th birthday on 18 March. Today, his prolific scholarship remains as timely and influential as when he was an… Read more »

After the Miracle: The End of the Asian Century?

     

  East Timor is voting for a new president in an election that will test Asia‘s newest and poorest nation, VOA reports. Meanwhile, Cambodia’s ongoing crackdown against opposition politicians and… Read more »

Soft power not enough in the Balkans

     

The 21st century in the Balkans is starting to look dangerously like the 19th — with one important difference. In the 19th century, Russia and Turkey were big rivals in… Read more »

Advancing democracy at the root of American ‘exceptionalism’

     

The classic liberal internationalist vision of a global Pax Democratica lies at the root of American “exceptionalism,” according to Tony Smith, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Tufts University, and… Read more »

How central Europe’s high hopes gave way to creeping authoritarianism

     

The central European states were the vanguards of communism’s collapse in the late 1980s, prompting a sense of inevitability about democracy’s benign coming, reinforced by the diverse figures who stepped… Read more »

Ideological aggression to be expected from ‘Putin: Operative in the Kremlin’

     

The Kremlin’s ‘active measures’ to undermine Western democracies mark a more aggressive step up from Russia’s earlier efforts to assert soft power, discussed here by Brookings analyst Fiona Hill. Meanwhile,… Read more »

Middle class bolsters Pakistan’s fragile democracy

     

Pakistan, often in the headlines for terrorism, coups and poverty, has developed something else in recent years: a burgeoning middle class that is fueling economic growth and bolstering a fragile… Read more »