In the 1960s and 1970s, scholars studying postcolonial states began increasingly to focus on corruption as an impediment to prosperity, notes journalist Oliver Bullough, the author of The Last Man… Read more »
The new U.S. National Security Strategy raises a number of questions, the Eurasia Group’s Ian Bremmer writes for TIME: How does the principle of “America First” square with plans to promote democracy… Read more »
The past year has seen a flood of concern about how social media can undermine democracy. And yet not too long ago, after the Arab Spring, social media was being hailed as a “liberation technology” that would… Read more »
Where do you draw the line between living in a democracy in which the party you despise has won free elections and living in a dictatorship where the opposition may… Read more »
The political crisis in Berlin challenges the idea of “German exceptionalism” as an anchor of democratic stability and a bulwark against a wave of populism, reports suggest. The hopes of many that… Read more »
Is it time to declare the end of the end of history? Are we witnessing the exhaustion, or tragic collapse, of the once-vital liberal tradition that supported our politics,… Read more »
Having lived through the collapse of two ideologies, tsarist and communist, Russia has been a post-truth society for decades, notes Anastasia Edel, the author of Russia: Putin’s Playground: Empire, Revolution, and… Read more »
Political scientists have long contended that culture matters to the formation and consolidation of democracy. But efforts to renew democracy and challenge authoritarianism will need to pay closer attention to… Read more »
After the Chinese Communist party’s celebratory 19th congress, which ended last week, some observers proclaimed Xi Jinping a new emperor, notes Harvard University’s Joseph Nye: Mr Xi, for his part,… Read more »
The assumption that autocracy is a feasible alternative to liberal democracy is understandable. When representative democracy fell before, it fell in that direction. It also fits the trend of events… Read more »
