There were sighs of relief throughout the European Union after President Emmanuel Macron beat back a serious challenge in France from the populist far-right champion Marine Le Pen. Then another populist… Read more »
Savvy autocrats have deployed the three P’s of populism, polarization and post-truth to cultivate ‘stealthocracy’ – maintaining liberal democracy’s institutional architecture while gutting the substance of such norms as accountability,… Read more »
Western democracies are demonstrating fresh resolve in defending Ukraine, but still need to demonstrate sufficient resilience by addressing domestic backsliding, according to a new Freedom House report. While some democratic… Read more »
Liberal democracy is back to where it was in 1989, says the most recent report from the Varieties of Democracy Institute (V–Dem) – in other words, the massive gains in… Read more »
Now freighted with evidence of mass atrocities and war crimes, the Russo-Ukrainian war is the strongest geopolitical and moral earthquake in Europe since the Cold War. The effects will thus… Read more »
Ukraine is not the only place where the contest between autocracy and democracy is taking place. It is also happening within several European democracies, through elections rather than military conflict…. Read more »
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is poised to win Sunday’s general election by a comfortable margin, though not by enough to secure another supermajority, reports suggest. In a video speech to European Union leaders… Read more »
In his infamous Transylvania speech announcing Hungary in 2014 as an “illiberal state,” Viktor Orban also called Russia—along with China, Singapore, India, and Turkey—a model for Hungarian society. But the… Read more »
In the face of increasing geopolitical tensions, liberal democracies appear to feel particularly overwhelmed, according to Turning the Tide – Unlearning Helplessness, the latest Munich Security Report. Yet, despite the… Read more »
The authoritarian challenge to democracy and human rights is arguably the defining geopolitical story of our time. But rather than oppose this trend, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) seems to… Read more »