Hollowing out democracy: Hungary and beyond
Following the revolutions of 1989 that brought down communism in Central Europe, it appeared that the region was on the path to the consolidation of liberal democracy. This optimism, however,… Read more »
Search Results for: Hungary
Democracy’s ‘foundational building blocks under threat’
Half of the world’s countries are suffering democratic decline, ranging from flawed elections to curtailed rights including freedoms of expression and assembly, an intergovernmental watchdog group said on Thursday, Reuters… Read more »
Poland’s election a ‘triumph of both democracy and liberalism’
Centrist and progressive forces appeared capable of forming a new government in Poland after securing more seats in a critical general election on Sunday, despite the governing nationalist party,… Read more »
Is the world still in a ‘democratic recession’?
“Democracy’s Surprising Resilience” is the focus of an article in the National Endowment for Democracy‘s Journal of Democracy. Steve Levitsky and Lucan Way write that authoritarians have found it difficult to… Read more »
Poland: Back to the ABC of democracy?
Poland’s ruling authoritarians have fundamentally subverted democracy, including the electoral process. For the democratic opposition to win, it will almost take a miracle, argues Wojciech Sadurski, a Professor at the… Read more »
Expanding, deepening – and shrinking: India’s democracy paradox
Today’s India is an “illiberal democracy”. Freedom House, the US think-tank, puts it at the same level as Hungary. But it rates the components differently: political rights, notably electoral politics,… Read more »
Democracies face ‘greatest challenge’ since Cold War
Democracies and the rules-based international order are facing their “greatest challenge” since the Cold War, said President Tsai Ing-wen (above), calling for greater cooperation by democracies to counter authoritarian regimes…. Read more »
Ukraine/Russia – ‘a new gulag is emerging’
At least 4,000 civilians are held in Russia and at least as many scattered around the occupied territories, according to Vladimir Osechkin, an exiled Russian human rights activist who talks… Read more »
‘Putin’s in a zugzwang’: The beginning of the end?
As rattled as they may have been by an armed insurrection in a nuclear-weapons state, Russia’s friends and business partners are unlikely to abandon Vladimir Putin, according to diplomats and… Read more »
‘A Region Torn and Fragmented?’ Authoritarian and democratic dynamics in Central Europe
The post-1989 transformation of Central Europe was often seen as the pinnacle of the Third Wave of Democratization. Now, the region is torn and fragmented along different democratic and illiberal-authoritarian… Read more »