Category: National Endowment for Democracy

How to understand the populist threat

     

This year, the European elections set for late May have continent-wide themes and a continent-wide significance, notes Anne Applebaum, a board member of the National Endowment for Democracy. Ironically, or perhaps absurdly,… Read more »

Autocracy’s forward march: stampede or slog?

     

Across the globe, entrenched authoritarians tightened their grip last year – watch China, for instance. Relatively new authoritarians extended their crackdowns – Hungary, Turkey, the Philippines are a few examples…. Read more »

China’s sharp power gains ‘overtaken by broader trends’

     

China’s ruling Communist Party launched a full-fledged campaign to “tell China’s story well,” spending billions of dollars on propaganda efforts.* Yet while an authoritarian state like China can control political discussion at… Read more »

AI systems accelerating authoritarian resurgence

     

Artificial intelligence systems are showing their potential for abetting repressive regimes and upending the relationship between citizen and state, accelerating a global resurgence of authoritarianism, notes Steven Feldstein, a nonresident fellow… Read more »

Who crushed Palestinian hopes for democracy?

     

Yesterday marked the fourteenth anniversary of Mahmoud Abbas’s election to the presidency of the Palestinian Authority (PA) for a four-year term. Not only have no subsequent elections for the presidency… Read more »

The truth about Cuba’s ‘transformation’

     

The Cuban regime’s sympathizers – including those like Angela Davis who never protested Fidel Castro’s brutal anti-gay repressions – insist that the Communist stalwart may be moving closer to democracy, but more… Read more »

Is a populist specter really threatening democracy?

     

2019 stands a good chance of being the year that the populist project crumbles into incoherence, as it becomes increasingly clear that bad ideas have bad consequences, argues FT analyst… Read more »

Russia’s ‘geopolitical capability’ in decline

     

Russia’s global ranking in the latest edition of The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index fell by nine places to 144th from 135th in 2017, putting it in the same position as… Read more »

‘New Cold War’ with assertively autocratic China? Display West’s democratic unity

     

The international system is currently experiencing a period of transition as economic, institutional and military power is being amassed by China, which is depleting the relative influence and stature of… Read more »