A new interdisciplinary study provides a grim warning to dictators and despots, and even leaders in democracies. Curbing press freedoms may irreversibly damage the economy.
Although there had been an increase in violence in Niger since the last election results were announced, the attempted coup, on March 31, raised concerns to a new level in the volatile country.
Tech companies’ use of dual-class share structures to keep control in the hands of founders and other insiders gives a handful of people power over enormous swaths of American life.
Western leaders learned the hard way 25 years ago that conflict in the Balkans can become ethnic cleansing. Add Russia into the mix, and Montenegro’s new problems are US and European problems, too.
From Europe to Latin America and the US, former world leaders are being investigated, tried and even jailed. In theory, this shows no one is above the law. But presidents and PMs aren’t just anyone.
The desire of former TNI and police officers to enter politics has more to do with personal advancement than with advancing the institutional interests of the military or police.
The US system was designed with more checks and balances than many other successful democracies – the filibuster’s main function is to give undue power to a vocal minority.
Trump might have popularised the idea of fake news, but 26 centuries ago Plato and Thucydides were convinced intellectuals and poets were duping the people and undermining democracy.
Given the current, often erroneous, use of the term ‘fascist’ to describe political movements and leaders, it’s important to determine what fascism is and is not.
Simon Bridges’s attack on New Zealand’s ‘wokester’ police commissioner might work as politics, but it fails to grasp the nature of policing in an open society.
The truth remains that no artist through Nigeria’s postcolonial years has contributed close to what Fela did – and continues to do - for human rights and social justice.
Elections are getting less safe in democracies and nondemocracies alike. Last year was the bloodiest year for elections in decades, with 54% of all national votes marred by some kind of violence.
Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy, Associate Research Professor, Political Science, Co-host of Democracy Works Podcast, Penn State