Revisionists pose ‘civilizational challenge’ to Western liberal democratic order

     

  The resurgence of threats to liberal democracy — external and internal — does not refute the principal thesis of Francis Fukuyama’s “The End of History?” says a prominent analyst…. Read more »

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Is Russia’s ‘new civic activism’ testing Putin’s grip on power?

     

  More people in Russia view the late Brezhnev era of the Soviet Union as “close to the people” than they do President Vladimir Putin’s Russia, according to a survey… Read more »

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Two scenarios for Venezuela as political stand-off accelerates economic implosion

     

The United States will bar two Venezuelan officials accused of human rights violations from traveling to the U.S. in its latest action to pressure Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro into stepping… Read more »

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How China is crushing the Uighurs

     

China’s Muslim Uighurs face systematic oppression from their own government, The Economist writes. Their home province of Xinjiang has been turned into a police state—an estimated one million of them… Read more »

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Rethinking democracy: from despair to renewal

     

Democratic politics is under attack – this time from populist nationalists, authoritarian regimes and new forms of political communication. It was not meant to be like this, according to Rethinking… Read more »

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Why elections are not necessarily democratizing

     

In Malawi’s presidential election in May, incumbent President Peter Mutharika narrowly won reelection. February’s Senegalese election was quite different, with incumbent Macky Sall easily claiming victory. Although Malawians continue to… Read more »

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‘Never-ending state war against civil society’ meets the new face of Russia’s protests

     

Russian authorities have threatened protesters in Moscow with lengthy jail sentences in an attempt to dampen an unexpected surge in protest mood before a planned opposition rally, The Guardian reports…. Read more »

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A dissident’s tale: How to help Iran’s democracy movement

     

Opposing the Iranian regime doesn’t have to mean sanctioning its banks and oil, argues Abbas Milani, the director of Stanford University’s Iran studies program. Milani cannot be called a squish… Read more »

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Cuba: battling economic crisis, escalating attacks on civil society

     

Communist-run Cuba has imposed sweeping price controls on all state and private businesses as it battles a deepening economic crisis and mounting U.S. sanctions, Reuters reports: Resolutions published in the… Read more »

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Democracy vs. kleptocracy

     

Democracy may be facing a crisis, but…. Now is a time “for resolve, not panic,” says Stanford University’s Larry Diamond. In his  latest book, Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage,… Read more »

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