Category: National Endowment for Democracy

India’s reluctant democracy assistance: world’s largest democracy also world’s most hierarchical society

     

India, the world’s largest democracy, also happens to be the world’s most hierarchical society; its most powerful and wealthy citizens, who are overwhelmingly upper-caste, are very far from checking their… Read more »

The lost opposition: Democracy dies in Venezuela?

     

As Venezuela falls into ever more tumultuous times, President Nicolás Maduro has tried to hit the final nail in democracy’s coffin. Now opposition parties are a thing of the past,… Read more »

R.I.P. Memorial’s Arseny Roginsky: fought to keep memory of Soviet crimes alive

     

Arseny Roginsky (left), a veteran activist who was chairman of the respected Memorial human rights society, has died after a life chronicling abuses and injustice in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet… Read more »

Why junking democracy promotion would be ‘a grave mistake’

     

Democracy promotion has become associated with some of America’s greatest foreign policy failures of the 21st century, and it is increasingly seen as an unaffordable luxury in a dangerous world,… Read more »

A ‘Sputnik Moment’? What to do about China’s ‘sharp power’

     

China is manipulating debate in Western democracies by employing “sharp power”, a term coined by the National Endowment for Democracy. “Soft power” harnesses the allure of culture and values to… Read more »

Democracy’s competitive advantage – the ability to renew itself

     

Democracy’s ability to renew itself, to “put aside the habit of taking itself for granted,” gives confidence in democracy’s ultimate victory, said Thomas Mann, whose essay on “The Coming Victory… Read more »

Under China, ‘Hong Kong’s democracy is dead’

     

Nine Hong Kong democracy activists have been banned from contesting seats in China’s legislature, the South China Morning Post reports. Elections to choose deputies to the National People’s Congress now… Read more »

Cambodia’s Descent: ruling party was ‘never committed to genuine democratic process’

     

  The United States has called on Cambodia to reverse steps that “backtracked on democracy” before a general election next year, Reuters reports: “We are advising that these steps that… Read more »

Merits and limits to democracy promotion in the Middle East

     

To advocate true democracy in the Arab world is a tough sell at the best of times. In the wake of the “Arab Spring,” a half-decade that witnessed some of… Read more »

Beijing’s sharp power proves China won’t become ‘more like us’

     

The downfall of a prominent Australian lawmaker is fueling a growing sense of unease about Chinese influence in the country’s domestic affairs, and raising tensions with its most important trading… Read more »