Michael Allen
Editor of Democracy Digest. To comment, get more information, or send material that may be of interest to other readers, please e-mail: Michael Allen at michaela@ned.org.
By Michael Allen on March 10, 2010
Iran’s Green Movement should reach out to the country’s workers to expand support amongst the country’s poor and working families, opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi said recently.
“The fate of the movement should be tied to the fate of all walks of life – in particular the two groups in charge of [the] economy and education, meaning [read full story]
Posted in Featured, Iran, Islam/politics, Labour/labor unions, Middle East and North Africa, Solidarity Center, solidarity |
By Michael Allen on March 10, 2010
The trial of Hissène Habré, Chad’s former dictator, will be “the first trial by the courts of one country against the former head of state of another,” writes human rights lawyer Reed Brody – if it takes place.
Twenty years ago, Souleymane Guengueng watched hundreds of his fellow inmates in Chad’s notorious jails die from torture [read full story]
Posted in Africa, Chad, Human rights, NGOs/Civil society, National Endowment for Democracy, autocrats, dictatorships, rule of law |
By Michael Allen on March 9, 2010
The two front-runners following Iraq’s national election have both claimed victory even though the authorities have yet to announce the results.
The electoral commission will reveal partial results of the parliamentary elections on Wednesday, providing an insight into the balance of forces that will determine the shape of the next government.
The coalitions led by the Prime [read full story]
Posted in Elections, Featured, Fragile States, Iraq, Middle East and North Africa, democracy, democratization |
By Michael Allen on March 9, 2010
Is the Obama administration hesitant to make democracy promotion a priority? The Carnegie Endowment’s Robert Kagan and Aroop Mukharji hint as much.
But they are more concerned to celebrate Colombia President Álvaro Uribe’s decision not to seek a fourth term of office:
Democracy is being undermined across South America, where hyper-presidencies and constitutional change have become commonplace. [read full story]
Posted in Backlash, autocrats, democracy, democracy promotion, democratization, promoting democracy | Tagged promoting democracy, wave of autocracy |
By Michael Allen on March 9, 2010
As elections loom, Ethiopia appears to be a relatively stable, prosperous nation in a turbulent neighborhood, writes Lauren Gelfand – “a bulwark against increasingly isolated and sanctioned Eritrea and a comparative oasis of calm compared to perennially chaotic Somalia.”
But human rights and democracy advocates experience one of the continent’s most repressive regimes. After the 2005 [read full story]
Posted in Africa, Ethiopia, Featured, Human rights, NGOs/Civil society, autocrats, democracy, democratization |
By Michael Allen on March 9, 2010
What if Greece were a Central European country?, asks Ivan Krastev, chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria.
While a year ago many feared that Central Europe was too corrupt and politically unstable and its economies too liberal (too Anglo-Saxon) to survive the crisis, now it has become clear that it was actually [read full story]
Posted in Eastern Europe, authoritarianism, corruption, democracy, economic crisis, governance | Tagged Bulgaria, democratic consolidation, New European Democracies |
By Michael Allen on March 9, 2010
The testimonies of former prisoners provide a rare insight into the nature of repression in North Korea, according to Stephen Haggard and Marcus Noland. Their analysis – Repression and Punishment in North Korea: Survey Evidence of Prison Camp Experiences – features in a useful Bookforum round-up of recent insights into the world’s most repressive regime, [read full story]
Posted in Closed societies, communist regimes |
By Michael Allen on March 9, 2010
Contrary to recent portrayals of a self-confident, newly assertive China assuming its place as a global hegemon, the country’s leadership “is in crisis mode”, according to a new Stratfor analysis.
Meanwhile, the ruling Communist Party’s second-highest ranking official today conceded the danger of social instability, emphasizing that the regime’s priorities would be to enhance social security [read full story]
Posted in Asia, China, Featured, authoritarianism, autocrats, communist regimes, democratic reform, democratization, freedom of expression |
By Michael Allen on March 8, 2010
Fourteen years on from the Dayton Accords, Bosnia’s political crisis threatens a renewal of extreme nationalism in the run-up to next year’s elections. The prospect of a referendum on the status of the Republika Srpska could lead to renewed ethnic violence.
Bosniaks and Croats would not accept partition, warns Reuf Bajrovic, a Sarajevo-based political analyst with [read full story]
Posted in Bosnia, Eastern Europe, state-building |
By Michael Allen on March 8, 2010
Sadly, Burma VJ didn’t win the Oscar for best documentary. The film features covertly filmed footage of the 1988 Saffron Revolution filmed by a small group of video journalists — the “VJs” of the film’s title — working the Oslo-based exile group Democratic Voice of Burma, a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy.
But it’s [read full story]
Posted in Asia, Burma, Democracy assistance, National Endowment for Democracy, authoritarianism, democracy support, freedom of expression, media, promoting democracy | Tagged Burma VJ, Democratic Voice of Burma |
Recent Comments