Tag: democratization

Kremlin joins China’s sharp power bandwagon

     

The coronavirus pandemic confirms that China’s authoritarian state capitalism with its hegemonic ambitions is by far the most difficult strategic challenge the West has ever faced, according to one observer…. Read more »

Autocratization surges, resistance grows

     

As autocratization accelerates, democratic resistance against this trend is growing, according to new V-Dem Institute data. For the first time since 2001, autocracies became a majority of the world’s political… Read more »

Why democracies cannot be ‘satisfaction machines’

     

Seeing democratization after the Cold War as a troubled process of political imitation helps us understand three critical ways in which an unjustifiable over-idealization of capitalism and democracy helped bring… Read more »

What went wrong in Central and Eastern Europe? A case for ‘pessoptimism’

     

There’s has been extensive and ongoing debate about “what went wrong in Central and Eastern Europe” and what explains its various forms of illiberalism and democratic decline. A variety of,… Read more »

Global protest wave rattles governments, but can it advance democracy?

     

Whether the unprecedented wave of protests leads to sustainable democratic transitions depends in large part on the strategic sophistication of illiberal regimes and democratic actors, including the latter’s ability to… Read more »

Rethinking backsliding: Why flawed liberals leave democracy vulnerable

     

One thing is especially disconcerting about the illiberal turn in Eastern and Central Europe. It has been the early front-runners of democratization – Hungary and Poland – where democratic backsliding… Read more »

When protest is not enough: Movements need alternative vision to the status quo

     

Recent political protests, from Hong Kong to Moscow, Tbilisi to Belgrade, have been the biggest since 1989, the great year of pro-democracy revolutions. But something fundamental has changed in the… Read more »

Will Ethiopia’s liberalization lead to democratization?

     

Rising ethnic tensions threaten to undermine the prospects of democratization in Ethiopia, say Freedom House analysts Jon Temin and Yoseph Badwaza.  Managing expectations, maintaining stability, and initiating a pluralist order… Read more »