Category: National Endowment for Democracy

Why is social media compatible with authoritarianism?

     

Once hailed as a force for human empowerment and liberation, social media—and the various related digital tools that enable people to search for, access, accumulate, and process information—have come to… Read more »

Main threat to liberal democracy ‘comes from within’?

     

Just as optimism over communism’s collapse and liberal democracy’s triumph masked underlying realities, so does Robert Kagan’s pessimism that strongmen are striking back warp understanding, argues Sheri Berman, a professor of political… Read more »

China Model can rival liberal democracy if….

     

China’s model of authoritarian government could be an alternative to Western-style liberal democracy but only if Beijing manages to control social stresses and maintain economic stability, according to American political… Read more »

Is Russia really undermining democracy in the West?

     

Russian interference has undermined democracy in the West by destabilizing institutions and polarizing societies. Western democratic governments had to strengthen their domestic institutions to protect against adversaries eager to exploit… Read more »

Inequality, insecurity, China threaten Africa’s democratization

     

Nearly one in three people living in West and Central Africa fear losing their homes and land in the next five years, according to a survey of 33 countries, making… Read more »

Authoritarian populism ‘on the rise’

     

Populism is on the rise, according to the latest edition of the Authoritarian Populism Index. The index, an initiative of the Swedish think-tank Timbro, aims to determine to what extent… Read more »

The greatest threat to Western liberal democracies is……

     

Robert Kagan is “dead wrong” to contend that the greatest threat to Western liberal democracies is the ascendancy of authoritarianism, argues Harlan Ullman, a senior adviser at the Atlantic Council. The failure of… Read more »

Identifying sources of democratic resilience and renewal

     

Authoritarianism has reemerged as the greatest threat to the liberal democratic world, and we have no idea how to confront it, Robert Kagan wrote in the first edition of The… Read more »

Arab Spring: the sequel?

     

The mantra of the Arab Spring is back. Protesters in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and the Palestinian territories [and Sudan] have demanded better governance of late, prompting talk of… Read more »

What’s at stake in Ukraine’s election?

     

Ukraine votes for a president on March 31. Will the pro-Western incumbent, Petro Poroshenko, win? Or will he lose to his old foe, Yulia Tymoshenko, or wild card Volodymyr Zelenskiy?… Read more »