The unfolding misfortunes of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe hold key lessons for his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma who faces the possibility of a forced exit.
Joshua Wong (left), Alex Chow (centre) and Nathan Law (right) speak to the press outside the Court of Final Appeal after the first hearing in their bid to appeal their jail sentences in Hong Kong on November 7, 2017.
ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP
In Hong Kong, challenges for the new generation of activists are not how to mobilise mass protests, but how to wrestle with the state’s innovative strategy to manage society.
Somaliland’s shift to use iris recognition in a presidential election stems from distrust in the voting system.
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In a remarkable extension of technological leapfrogging, Somaliland will become the first country in the world to use iris recognition in a presidential election.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration has been plagued by corruption and scandal, and many voters have finally had enough.
Edgard Garrido/Reuters
Mexico’s 2018 presidential race hasn’t even begun, but it’s already a nail-biter, featuring two women, a left-wing firebrand, party defections, strange bedfellows and no small dose of scandal.
A statue of Pericles outside Athens City Hall. Like Trump, Pericles used war to deflect from bad news.
(Shutterstock)
Does ancient Greek war hawk Pericles provide clues to a besieged Donald Trump’s next move? War has always been a helpful distraction for cornered world leaders.
After executing a stunning break with his left-wing predecessor, Ecuador’s new president, Lenin Moreno, has been ousted from his party.
Reuters/Henry Romero
A decade and a half after it was invaded in the name of spreading democracy, Iraq turns out to have been set up to fail.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose for photographers before a meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in April in Palm Beach, Fla.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The contrast between the U.S. and China could not be clearer in recent weeks: China enjoys dignity without democracy; the United States has democracy without dignity. Yet there are many similarities.
A man protesting against the government’s new power to ban organisations deemed anti-Pancasila, Indonesia’s state ideology.
Reuters/Beawiharta
A recently passed regulation in lieu of law allows the government to ban organisations deemed against Indonesia’s state ideology Pancasila. It marks a troubling turn towards ultra-nationalism.
May cannot depend on distracted Merkel and Macron.
Olivier Hoslet/EPA
Winning an independence referendum is the simple bit – It’s no easy trick to assert yourself on the world stage.
Muslims attend a Defend Islam Action rally in Jakarta. The rallies show how political Islam utilises democracy to pursue a conservative religious agenda.
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Political Islam utilises Indonesia’s democracy to pursue its ideals, changing the democratic landscape. Attempts to exclude the movement from democracy are counterproductive. What to do?
Despite the peace and prosperity brought about by the EU, it continues to be seen as remote and antidemocratic. How can this be fixed ? One possibility is the creation of a Commissioner for Happiness.
A democrat? Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen casts his ballot during local council elections, June 2017.
EPA Images
‘I’m not inviting you to abort, I’m inviting you to decide.’ Can democracy exist if women aren’t recognized as people with full human rights?
Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters
Seventy-five percent of all abortions in Latin America are illicit. In Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador, where abortion is totally illegal, the bans correlate with a generalized failure of the rule of law.
For some, Spain’s crackdown on the Catalonian independence vote has raised the specter of the country’s authoritarian past.
Reuters/Susana Vera
Why did the Spanish state forcefully quash Catalonia’s referendum for independence? It is rooted in the country’s nearly 40-year dictatorship and its transition to democracy.
An election observer from the British High Commission in Nairobi.
EPA/Dai Kurokawa
African democracies are embracing electronic voting far more confidently than the West.
Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Alice Weidel campaigns in front of a banner that reads: ‘Crime by immigration: a flood of refugees leaves its mark!’
Axel Schmidt/Reuters
Current events show that the old problem of populism is making a comeback, and that populism is indeed an autoimmune disease of our age of monitory democracy.