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Articles on Authoritarianism

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President Donald Trump shakes hands with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán during a meeting in the Oval Office on May 13, 2019, in Washington, D.C. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

I watched Hungary’s democracy dissolve into authoritarianism as a member of parliament − and I see troubling parallels in Trumpism and its appeal to workers

One of Donald Trump’s favorite politicians is the Hungarian authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán. Would a country led again by Trump embrace similar antidemocratic politics?
Protesters in El Salvador declare ‘Yes to democracy. No to authoritarianism’ during a demonstration on Jan. 14, 2024. PHOTOGRAFIA/Getty Images

In the face of severe challenges, democracy is under stress – but still supported – across Latin America and the Caribbean

A survey of people across 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean found widespread concern over the economy and crime.
Berliners giving the Nazi salute following the announcement of the German invasion of Poland on September 1 1939. Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo|Alamy

How the social structures of Nazi Germany created a bystander society

The German population was transformed under Nazism into a “bystander society” – even before the conditions of wartime normalised acts of excessive violence.
A group of Spanish people have filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for torture they and others experienced under the Franco regime from 1939 to 1975. David Zorrakino/Europa Press via Getty Images

After 50 years of global effort to abolish torture, much work remains

More than three-quarters of the world’s nations engage in torture, which is notoriously difficult to study because it often occurs in secret.
Andrey Vladimirovich Menshikov, mostly known by his stage name ‘Legalize’, but also for his membership in D.O.B and Bad Balance, is used to grating the Kremlin. KabanDanish/Wikimedia

Russian rap has long held up a mirror to Russian society – and the current reflection isn’t flattering

Vladimir Putin and his KGB men have steadily extinguished the artistic freedom the genre enjoyed in the 1990s, with Ukraine’s invasion adding yet another nail in the coffin.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe speaks to the media at the Saskatchewan legislature in Regina. His government plans to invoke the notwithstanding clause to override a judge’s injunction and introduce legislation about the province’s pronoun policy in school. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Heywood Yu

It’s time to banish the notwithstanding clause, the slow killer of Canada’s rule of law

The only solution to the ominous threats posed by the increasing use of the notwithstanding clause is to amend Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Thousands of people attend a pro-Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in New York in May 1934, with counterprotestors outside. Anthony Potter Collection/Hulton Archive via Getty Images

Nazi Germany had admirers among American religious leaders – and white supremacy fueled their support

Two social scientists analyzed periodicals from US religious leaders in 1935 to determine what factors influenced groups’ sympathy, ambivalence or outrage about Hitler and Nazi Germany.
Opposition supporters calling for free and fair elections outside the offices of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission in Harare in 2018. Jeksai Njikizana/AFP via Getty Images.

Zimbabwe elections 2023: a textbook case of how the ruling party has clung to power for 43 years

Zimbabwe’s 2023 elections look like their predecessors: stolen. But this one is a bit different. Opposition strategies and regional responses have changed too. What does this mean for the future?

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