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By Michael Allen on August 28, 2009
Authoritarian rulers are increasingly resorting to ostensibly non-political legal measures to neutralize opponents rather than manifestly repressive means. After initially appearing to nurture civil society after the trauma of Khmer Rouge rule, Cambodia is becoming an unfortunate case study of government using the law as an instrument of political persecution against opponents and critics.
The growing [read full story]
Posted in Asia, Backlash, Cambodia, Human rights, Labour/labor unions, NGOs/Civil society, authoritarianism, backsliding | Tagged authoritarianism, Cambodian Center for Human Rights, Center for Social Development, China model, civil society, Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission |
By Michael Allen on August 7, 2009
“When I think of the ‘colored revolutions’, I feel afraid,” said Shi Zongyuan, China’s senior press regulator.
Democratic transitions in formerly communist states traumatized authoritarian leaders in Russia and China, prompting a remarkable convergence of views and responses, characterized by efforts to develop competing forms of soft power and to suffocate or co-opt civil society.
“On the [read full story]
Posted in Backlash, China, Democracy assistance, Must Read, NGOs/Civil society, National Endowment for Democracy, Russia, Soft power, authoritarianism, democracy promotion, media, promoting democracy | Tagged authoritarianism, backlash against democracy assistance, civil society, colored revolutions’, communist states, Democracy assistance, Empowerment and Rights Institute, formerly communist states, Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, National Endowment for Democracy, pre-empting democracy, sovereign democracy |
By Michael Allen on July 31, 2009
“Syria with a smile” is how Tunisia is often described. Relatively liberal and open in cultural and social terms, presenting a benign face to tourists and visiting journalists, it is nevertheless rigorously authoritarian in its politics – and arguably becoming more so.
“Unlike most of its semi-authoritarian neighbors, which have – under increasing domestic and international [read full story]
Posted in Backlash, Democracy assistance, Human rights, authoritarianism, dictatorships | Tagged authoritarianism, Democratisation', Tunisia |
By Michael Allen on July 30, 2009
International news agencies have seized on the death of a senior steel plant manager in northeastern China at the hands of angry workers, and the mass brawl at a Shaoguan toy factory between Uighur and Han employees that prompted the violence in Urumchi.
While welcoming the media spotlight on China’s neglected labor issues, the China Labour [read full story]
Posted in China, Labour/labor unions, National Endowment for Democracy, authoritarianism, protests | Tagged authoritarianism, China Labour Bulletin, National Endowment for Democracy |
By Michael Allen on July 24, 2009
Iran’s hardliners are hitting back at reformist claims that the regime has lost its legitimacy following the June 12 disputed presidential election. A prominent Iranian cleric today claimed there was a conspiracy to undermine Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“We know about the plots against the leader but you (who hold these meetings) should know that [read full story]
Posted in Elections, Iran, Islam/politics, Middle East and North Africa, NGOs/Civil society, authoritarianism, protests | Tagged Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Assembly of Experts, authoritarianism, civil society, clerical authoritarianism, iran, promoting democracy, Vali-e-Faqih |
By Michael Allen on July 20, 2009
The global economic crisis has reportedly prompted renewed interest in Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism. Even the pro-market Center for International Private Enterprise appears to have pulled Das Kapital from the bookshelves, albeit to deliver a trenchant analysis of the new authoritarianism.
Marx claimed to have identified capitalism’s inherent contradiction – between its productive forces and [read full story]
Posted in Analysis, China, Global, Russia, authoritarianism, democracy promotion, economic crisis, promoting democracy | Tagged authoritarianism, Center for International Private Enterprise, global economic crisis, Performance-based legitimacy |
By Michael Allen on July 20, 2009
The arrest of Stern Hu, an Australian citizen working for iron ore exporter Rio Tinto, confirms that in non-democratic states like China “there is no clear border between the economic and the political”, writes Michael Danby, a Labor member of the Australian parliament and chair of its Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee.
Dealing with China, an “assertive Communist [read full story]
Posted in China, authoritarianism, corruption | Tagged authoritarianism, Michael Danby, rn, World Movement for Democracy |
By Michael Allen on July 2, 2009
Azerbaijan’s civil society has won at least a temporary victory in blocking proposed amendments to the NGO and media laws that many feared would close political space and harden the Caspian state’s purportedly soft authoritarianism.
The final draft dropped controversial provisions that significantly impeded foreign funding, required NGOs to disclose members; personal details, and prescribed harsh [read full story]
Posted in Azerbaijan, Backlash, Democracy assistance, Eurasia, Human rights, NGOs/Civil society, National Endowment for Democracy, authoritarianism | Tagged authoritarianism, azerbaijan, civil society, Civil Society Defense Committee, media laws, Media Rights Institute, National Endowment for Democracy, NGO law, soft authoritarianism |
By Michael Allen on July 2, 2009
President Barack Obama should challenge the Kremlin on its democratic backsliding at this week’s U.S.-Russian summit in Moscow, says a group of foreign policy specialists and democracy advocates.
The open letter, an initiative of the Foreign Policy Initiative, suggests that the president should reiterate the argument of his recent Cairo speech that governments that protect democratic [read full story]
Posted in NGOs/Civil society, National Endowment for Democracy, Russia, authoritarianism, corruption, democracy promotion, foreign policy, promoting democracy | Tagged authoritarianism, democracy advocates, Foreign Policy Initiative, Michael McFaul, National Democratic Institute, National Endowment for Democracy, Stephen Sestanovich, U.S.-Russian summit |
By Michael Allen on June 30, 2009
No, it’s not the oil, the terror, Shi’ism, or the nationalism unleashed by the war with Iraq, writes Ervand Abrahamian, in an interesting background to current events. Economic and social populism has been the key to sustaining Iran’s clerical authoritarianism.
By prioritizing social over military spending (the armed forces take up some 4 per cent of [read full story]
Posted in Islam/politics, Middle East and North Africa, NGOs/Civil society, authoritarianism | Tagged authoritarianism, bonyads, civil society, iran, populism |
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