Democracy

By Brian Grodsky, University of Maryland, Baltimore County | – The West has responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by imposing harsh economic sanctions. Most consequentially, key Russian banks have been cut out of the SWIFT payments messaging system, making financial transactions much more difficult. The United States, European Union and others also moved to […]

Authoritarianism

How Zelenskyy emerged as the antithesis of Putin and proved you don’t need to be a strongman to be a great leader

The Conversation

By Michael Blake, University of Washington | – Whatever happens in the coming weeks, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will go down as the face of Ukrainian resilience during the Russian invasion of his country. His response to the Russian invasion of his country has been widely praised, both at home and abroad. His speech to the […]

Corporations

Is the Gutting of Newspapers by Private Equity Firms the Nail in the Coffin of Democracy?

Sam Pizzigati

Profit maximizing in the newspaper industry is corroding the knowledge base that sustains government by the people. ( Inequality.org ) – Has the unthinkable, the Swedish political scientist Bo Rothstein mused earlier this month, now entered the realm of real possibility? Could democracy in the United States be disappearing? Millions of Americans are worrying about […]

Elections

Why Elections will not solve Libya’s deep-rooted Problems

The Conversation

By Natasha Lindstaedt | – Libya is poised to hold presidential and parliamentary elections this year but there are still many unresolved issues. Ongoing political turmoil has caused the elections to be postponed several times, with no exact date set. All of this chaos was to be predicted if you look at what Libya inherited […]

Arab World

Is the Return of Dictatorship in Tunisia the end of the Arab Spring Youth Movements?

Global Voices

By Yosr Jouini | – ( Globalvoices.org) – On July 25, 2021, Tunisian President-elect Kais Said announced the dismissal of the prime minister, a freeze of the elected parliament, and his rule by decree. While Tunisia has been lauded as the only Arab Spring country to succeed in its democratic transition, this latest announcement fuelled […]

Authoritarianism

For First Time, US joins Brazil and India as “Backsliding Democracy”: GOP is making US a Third World Country

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sweden’s International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance finds this year that the United States of America has joined the ranks of “backsliding democracies,” joining India, Brazil, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. The IDEA institute notes, “Democratic backsliding, namely the sustained and deliberate process of subversion of basic democratic tenets by […]

Democracy

In Sudan’s new Revolt, Women and Youth will not settle for less than true Democracy

Open Democracy

By Nazik Awad | (OpenDemocracy.net) – Sudan’s coup on 25 October was both highly anticipated and inevitable. For three months, tension between the civilian and military partners that had ruled Sudan since the 2019 powersharing deal had been intensifying. After the 2019 revolution and the fall of former president Omar al-Bashir, political parties and civil […]

Democracy

In the Middle East, the US was Never about Democracy Promotion

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – How much of the blame should U.S. policy take for the decline of democracy in the twenty-first century, with the reversions to dictatorship and the rise of illiberalism in older democracies? In a fine article at the New York Times, Max Fisher discusses how an NYT team mined data at […]

Democracy

Feeding the Crocodile: Do Any Republicans Still Support Democracy?

Jill Richardson

( Otherwords) – Republicans should heed Churchill’s warning about appeasing authoritarians: “Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, it will eat him last.” By Jill Richardson | November 3, 2021 Investigative accounts of the Trump administration, like the recent Washington Post feature on the January 6 insurrection, routinely write about three kinds […]