Populism, polarization threaten Latin America’s democratic renewal
It was one of the greatest waves of democratization ever. In 1977 all but three of the 20 countries in Latin America were dictatorships of one kind or another. By… Read more »
Tag: democratization
Tensions in Indonesia: ‘resilient elections, defective democracy’?
On the eve of historic elections, a conundrum lies at the heart of Indonesian politics. Successive governments have built one of the most important foundations of a successful democracy: free,… Read more »
Cultural ‘retro backlash’ driving authoritarian populism
Cultural divisions and resentments are driving the rise of authoritarian populism across the Western world, according to a new book. Cultural backlash: Trump, Brexit, and authoritarian populism, by Pippa Norris… Read more »
What next for the Rohingya? Fresh thinking needed to resolve crisis
The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee called for the Myanmar army chief to be prosecuted for “genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes”, CIVICUS… Read more »
Main threat to liberal democracy ‘comes from within’?
Just as optimism over communism’s collapse and liberal democracy’s triumph masked underlying realities, so does Robert Kagan’s pessimism that strongmen are striking back warp understanding, argues Sheri Berman, a professor of political… Read more »
Iran tilts to the right: fueling unrest, punishing dissent
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei is doubling down on his regime’s policies of persecution, power projection and terror by appointing hard-line loyalists in a bid to ensure that critical state institutions remain… Read more »
Third wave of global ‘autocratization’ may still be picking up
Conventional wisdom on democracy’s troubles is still taking shape, but it generally holds that a dozen or so countries have backslid in a global trend dating roughly to the global… Read more »
Democracy fosters economic growth (but democratization is no walk in the park)
Democracy fosters economic growth, with researchers finding vast gains in productivity after countries democratize, according to a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Research shows that when it… Read more »
China’s autocracy with democratic characteristics: the regime ‘that failed to fail’?
The pattern is familiar to historians, a rising power challenging an established one, with a familiar complication: For decades, the United States encouraged and aided China’s rise, working with its… Read more »
Democratization is among ‘Armenia’s New Challenges’
The U.S. has little leverage to influence developments in Armenia’s shifting political and security landscape, according to experts on the post-Soviet space, Eurasianet’s Grigor Atanesian reports. The current geopolitical shift… Read more »