Search Results for: Carothers

Democracy demotion? How to restore the freedom agenda

     

The United States stands at a precipice, facing a time when freedom and democracy will be tested. It remains, within the world’s vast web of alliances and organizations, the indispensable… Read more »

Closing civic space – or changing civil society?

     

The trend of closing civic space crystallized at the beginning of this decade. In response, concerned international actors — including various bilateral aid agencies, foreign ministries, private foundations and international… Read more »

Senator’s passing highlights end of bipartisan foreign policy?

     

A bipartisan group is releasing a scorecard to grade members of Congress on their foreign policy views. The scorecard — which the group, Foreign Policy for America , describes as the first of… Read more »

‘No such thing as illiberal democracy’?

     

There’s no such thing as an illiberal democracy. It’s a contradiction in terms, according to Central European University’s Michael Ignatieff, You either have a democracy with those institutions or you… Read more »

Does democracy’s past reveal its future?

     

Faced with the dispiriting state of global democracy,* worried observers fret over three basic questions: Why is this democratic recession happening? How bad is it? And where is it heading?… Read more »

Authoritarian challenge is the ‘defining question of our time’?

     

Democracy’s global travails continue to mount, notes a leading observer. What looked as recently as a decade ago to be real democratic progress in countries as diverse as Brazil, Hungary, South Africa, and Turkey has… Read more »

Is Tunisia really democratizing? Progress + resistance = uncertain outlook

     

While Tunisia’s eighth anniversary celebrations of the end of the Ben Ali dictatorship were marred by social protests, opinions differ about the country’s state of political development as it gears… Read more »

How comparative insights and lessons magnify democratic renewal

     

Ideas, experiences, and lessons from other countries are not panaceas but, if properly researched, disseminated, and discussed, they can magnify democratic reform, say two leading analysts. The resounding success of Steven… Read more »

Is technology strengthening authoritarianism relative to democracy?

     

Foreign Affairs, which has published a number of pieces dealing with technology and authoritarianism, asked a broad pool of experts whether technological change today is strengthening authoritarianism relative to democracy. In the past, the assumption was that… Read more »

Is democracy itself the problem?

     

Many liberal democracies are encountering serious problems while authoritarianism appears to be enjoying a global surge of self-confidence.  As a result, not only are doubts about the value and wisdom of democracy… Read more »