Istanbul’s new mayor says his election victory against Turkey‘s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party carries an important lesson for the world’s populist leaders: Act against the will of the people… Read more »
Central and Eastern Europe’s transition to democracy has not been smooth. But there are grounds for hope, notes Alison Smale. What would Vaclav Havel have made of post-1989 developments? she asked… Read more »
1989 marked the end not of history as such, but of a specific chapter in history. Western liberal democracy, which Francis Fukuyama predicted would enjoy eternal supremacy after 1989, now faces an increasingly… Read more »
The illiberal wave in Poland and Hungary, in addition to the corruption in Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, and Slovakia can be easily used as excuses against further EU enlargement, notes Carnegie’s Judy Dempsey…. Read more »
Since the fall of the Indonesian dictator Suharto in 1998, civil society has flourished under the country’s burgeoning democracy. Observers even began calling Indonesia the most democratic nation in… Read more »
Democracy is in mortal danger in Poland, in part because of the failure of the opposition, says a leading analyst. Here is a government that spreads unsupported conspiracy theories, is doubling… Read more »
The two most venerable English-speaking democracies appear to be following in the footsteps of countries they once sought to inspire. As the experience of Argentina, Hungary, or even Italy make… Read more »
In his essay “Democracy Demotion” (July/August 2019), Larry Diamond claims that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban “has presided over the first death of a democracy in an EU member state,”… Read more »
The tides of illiberalism in central and eastern Europe are in partial retreat in the face of popular mobilization in defense of the rule of law that deserves western support…. Read more »
A change in control at Budapest’s 1956 Institute, prompted by Hungary’s illiberal premier Viktor Orban, is part of a wider trend of stifling academic freedom and limiting public dissent, creating… Read more »