Category: Democratization

When elections hurt democracy

     

The Algerian government has begun investigating the funding of media organizations and news sources that it claims are using foreign funding to promote anti-government and anti-reform content. The authorities have… Read more »

Essential weekend reading: Why the West is worth saving

     

No historical rhythm guarantees that democracy is just around the corner in China or Russia or anywhere else, argues Michael Kimmage, Professor of History at The Catholic University of America…. Read more »

Transition Framework: A new path to Venezuelan democracy?

     

  The US government unveiled a plan on Tuesday to break Venezuela’s political deadlock, inviting President Nicolás Maduro to cede power to a new transitional government in exchange for sanctions… Read more »

Could Ethiopia’s transition be ‘derailed’?

     

Africa’s second-most populous country is heading into its first multiparty campaign season after Ethiopia’s prime minister, Nobel Prize-winner Abiy Ahmed, lifted a ban on opposition parties, dissolved his own ruling party… Read more »

Autocratization poses challenge for democracy assistance strategies

     

Illiberals are neither fully committed to civil liberties – such as freedom of expression, assembly and association – and the rule of law, nor totally devoted to the institutions that… Read more »

Advancing democracy: What works and why?

     

“What factors and conditions should exist for local pro-democracy, human rights, and labor organizations  to effect positive change?” The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL)… Read more »

Mubarak’s legacy – Arab Spring’s failure?

     

Hosni Mubarak, the autocratic ruler of Egypt whose nearly 30 years in power came to an abrupt, bloody climax in 2011 after a popular revolt swept across the Arab world,… Read more »

Renewing Democracy in the Digital Age

     

The scholar Hélène Landemore, a professor of political science at Yale, has spent much of her career trying to understand the value and meaning of democracy and trying to solve… Read more »

Beyond Interests vs. Ideals? Advancing democracy in the ‘Arab Winter’

     

Tunisia’s interior regions have been a wellspring for social protests. Without deep economic restructuring, populists could pose an even graver threat to the country’s nascent democracy, argues analyst Hamza Meddeb…. Read more »

‘Democracy: From Theory to Practice’: Assessing decay, breakdown and renewal

     

The autocratic resurgence was a factor in prompting USAID to declare 2020 as the Year of Democracy and launch a campaign called #Democracy Is… in order “to highlight the interlocking… Read more »