The collapse of state socialism brought about social liberalization, political democratization and economic privatization, but these transformations never ran smoothly or in the same direction in all post-communist states. By… Read more »
Social media platforms are helping us to create our worst selves, says Nobel laureate Maria Ressa (above). We know – in 2018, MIT said that lies spread faster than facts,… Read more »
Xi Jinping wants to reshape the world order in a way that would please autocrats. He presents China’s authoritarian model as a plausible alternative to the West, notes Roger McShane,… Read more »
“Democracy: A new hope?” is the theme of this year’s World Forum for Democracy, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The event, taking place from 7 to 9 November at the Council… Read more »
Why are some nations more democratic than others? How are democratic institutions, freedoms and values spread or lost? We tend to think of this variation in terms of geography—democratic… Read more »
Something odd happens when the elites discuss the crisis of western democracy. No one wants to fault the public, at least not in so many words. That would be Marie… Read more »
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently appealed for a “Marshall Plan” to rebuild war-scarred Ukraine, Deutsche Welle reports. Unlike its predecessor, which rebuilt… Read more »
Brazilians head to the polls on Sunday to vote in a presidential runoff between current President Jair Bolsonaro and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, commonly known as Lula,… Read more »
The two core components of liberal democracy—liberalism and democracy—have been diverging for some time. For most of the modern era, the two concepts went hand in hand, at least in… Read more »
Autocratic regimes like China and Russia exhibit weaknesses of two sorts, says Stanford’s Francis Fukuyama: First, the concentration of power in the hands of a single leader at the top… Read more »