‘The Road to Unfreedom’ critiqued and explored
In ‘The Road to Unfreedom’, Timothy Snyder traces the intellectual roots of modern authoritarianism in Russia and how its influence has spread, not least in the West, notes Eurozine.* In… Read more »
Tag: Timothy Snyder
Fear and freedom: is Western democracy in danger?
Could democracy die in the US? Is a new wave of authoritarianism sweeping the world? Is the west about to be engulfed by civil conflict? FT columnist Gideon Rachman asks:… Read more »
The ‘fascist’ philosopher inspiring Russia’s kleptocrats
An advocate of Russian fascism is having a profound influence on the discourse of the country’s politicians and kleptocrats,* including Vladimir Putin, according to a leading commentator. Because Ivan Ilyin (left)… Read more »
Teaching Democratic Citizenship When Democracy is at Risk
In a letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson wrote: Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace… Read more »
The third counter-wave to democracy and liberalism. What’s next?
If history shows that successive waves of democracy are followed by anti-democratic reaction, the current surge of authoritarian, illiberal or populist politics should suggest that we’re eventually due a democratic… Read more »
Political warfare the logical projection of Russia’s new ideology
Proponents of an accommodation with the Kremlin fail to appreciate the nature of the regime in Russia, says The Economist’s Edward Lucas. “The idea of a holy homeland besieged by… Read more »
How central Europe’s high hopes gave way to creeping authoritarianism
The central European states were the vanguards of communism’s collapse in the late 1980s, prompting a sense of inevitability about democracy’s benign coming, reinforced by the diverse figures who stepped… Read more »
Is populism the biggest menace to democracy?
Even those who recognize the sheer diversity of the threats facing democracy struggle to prioritize them, notes Dominique Moisi, Senior Counselor at the Institut Montaigne in Paris. “If, say, Islamist… Read more »
‘Fascistic’? Russia’s foreign policy in the Putin era
The worldview of Russia’s ruling elite can be understood within a “fascist framework” for geopolitics, argues Yale University historian Timothy Snyder, who asserts that fascism is a framework which is… Read more »