A string of political defeats, legal setbacks and economic backlash is eroding Trump’s grip on power, raising cautious hopes that America’s democratic resilience is finally reasserting itself.
Tag: authoritarian
From language bans to property seizures, residents of the Ukrainian port city of Berdyansk live under constant surveillance, intimidation, and the threat of losing everything.
Xi Jinping’s military show in Beijing and his alliance of autocrats may look like the dawn of a new world order, yet the economic, scientific, and military balance still tilts toward the democracies of the West.
Even after diplomatic overtures and red-carpet treatment abroad, Moscow answers with one of its deadliest strikes since the invasion, showing the Kremlin has no intention of negotiating an end to the war.
The first round of Bolivia’s presidential election on Aug. 17 brought an end to 20 years of socialist rule. The winner of the Oct. 19 runoff will be handed the responsibility to fundamentally change the country.
Looking back, 2024 was a year of momentous elections around the world. The results, from country to country, show overall that the global health of democracy remains precarious when some of those who win elections do not seem to believe in the political system which brought them to power.
Venezuela’s Bolivarian regime has been trampling on democracy, by degree, for 25 years while deftly managing international opinion to avoid too much backlash. Now, with Maduro defying fair elections, there may be no turning back.
Unless there is a last-minute twist, the only real issue in the second round is whether the far-right party will have an absolute majority or not. The left seems unaware that its ideas are largely in the minority.
In India, journalists are either ousted from the country, jailed, penalized or criticized for a stance when reporting on government inattention to some issues. In the process the focus sometimes, is on the teller, not the story.
Updated May 3, 2024 at 9:15 a.m. Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister of the United Kingdom on this day in 1979. She served as prime minister for 11 years, until her resignation in November 1990. What were Margaret Thatcher’s key policies as prime minister? As prime minister, Margaret Thatcher pursued a program of economic […]
Finding themselves amid a range of strategic, economic and regional interests, Iranians in a post-regime future will have to deftly maneuver their country toward a peaceful, constitutional state. Bahram Farrokhi writes about the good, the bad and the worst-case scenarios.
Western states are taking democratic governance for granted and responding feebly to threats in their midst. With the crisis at the Ukraine-Russia border coming to a head, the 1930s offer lessons on the dangers of complacency in the face of a kind of semi-democracy.
In the year since the arrest of Vladimir Putin’s last opponent a new Cold War has begun. In the absence of internal enemies, Russia’s increasingly powerful yet isolated ruler must turn to external targets.
The Tunisian president is cultivating his ambiguities and pushing his constitutional reform, without proposing a roadmap to get the country out of the crisis. Refusing to speak to the media, he has an increasingly populist tone with messianic accents.
Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed caused a stir by appointing Najla Bouden, the first female head of government in the Arab world. But as the president has assumed full powers a decade after the launch of the Arab Spring, it is a choice with a mixed message.
Over the past few weeks, the offspring of two of the 20th centuries most ruthless strongmen have announced they’d like to become the (democratically elected) leaders of Libya and the Philippines.
Op-Ed INDIA — I don’t watch many Netflix programs, but a series recommended by my cousin has struck me like a bolt of lightning. Called How to Become a Tyrant, it presents what it calls “a playbook for absolute power.” Much of it is tongue-in-cheek, yet it’s based on the actual tactics and strategies used by Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, Muammar Gaddafi, Kim Il-sung, Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein. So if you take it seriously, it tells you what you must do if you aspire to be India’s tanashah. And the remarkable thing is it feels uncannily like […]
Authoritarianism allows for swift, decisive action, and when it comes to controlling a viral outbreak, that may be an advantage. But that’s only part of the equation.
-Essay- PARIS — Every aspiring strongman must fulfill a number of prerequisites. He should be skilled at demonizing his opponents and intimidating his allies, manipulating the media and restricting free speech — all the while mixing different doses of serial lying, fear-mongering and nationalism to rile up the masses. But, of course, the long-term success […]
For strongman leaders like Putin and Bolsonaro, the health crisis looked like a natural opening for greater top-down control — at least on paper.
None should be more dismayed by Daniel Ortega’s despotic slide than those who hailed his revolution as a triumph of democratic socialism, some 40 years ago.
MOSCOW — Nicolas Maduro has been reelected as Venezuela’s president for a new six-year term. Alexei Kolesnikov in the Moscow-based independent magazine The New Times looks at international reaction to the election, specifically as it relates to Russia: “Last month’s election of Maduro was clearly flawed and not recognized as legitimate by neither the country’s […]
Even the most anti-democratic election can reveal much about the system.
-Essay- WASHINGTON — On Nov. 8, 2016, Erik Hagerman was struck by a bolt. Donald Trump was victorious, the last thing he wanted to hear. So on that very day, the 53-year-old former Nike corporate executive swore that he would avoid everything that happened in, and to, America after election day. He did not want […]
The new season of Game of Thrones, which premiered Sunday, will surely be filled with all manner of sabotage, conspiracy, and politicking. The fictional world of author George R. R. Martin is essentially a timeless story of the pursuit of power as an end in itself. But that same show, it appears, is not only […]
People should not dismiss the meaning of a spate of shocking electoral results, for the world may be entering a period of democratic decline.
It’s more than just an easy target…
BUCHAREST – When he’s not glued to his computer screen, Stefan Cornea watches films on TV. At 18 years of age, this Bucharest high school student is fed up with politics, Romania and life in general. “There’s nothing to do here,” he says in a cynical tone. “It was better before. My parents have told […]