democracy
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By Michael Allen on January 20, 2010
Authoritarian regimes have deliberately targeted and intensified attacks against human rights and democracy advocates over the past year, according to the annual review of Human Rights Watch. [read full story]
Posted in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Blogs, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Human rights, Kenya, National Endowment for Democracy, Regions, Sri Lanka, authoritarianism, democracy, democracy promotion, democracy support, dissidents | Tagged Afghanistan, authoritarian, azerbaijan, burundi, china, democracy, Democratic Republic of the Congo, dissidents, Egypt, ethiopia, human rights watch, Kenya, National Endowment for Democracy, NGOs, non-governmental organizations, Russia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, turkmenistan, uzbekistan |
By Michael Allen on January 20, 2010
The one-day trial of four Vietnamese democracy advocates ended today as a Hanoi court handed down unusually harsh sentences. [read full story]
Posted in Asia, Blogs, Vietnam, democracy | Tagged china, Communist Party, democracy, Democracy Digest, Tiananmen Square, vietnam, Vietnam Committee on Human Rights |
By Michael Allen on October 8, 2009
Proponents of a “grand bargain” with Iran overlook the regime’s “profound strategic vulnerabilities”, but the alternative of externally-driven regime change is equally flawed, argues Stanford’s Abbas Milani.
With the theocracy’s clerical leadership in “unprecedented disarray”, the ruling triumvirate of a diminished Supreme Leader, an illegitimate President and an ascendant Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) can best [read full story]
Posted in Elections, Iran, Islam/politics, authoritarianism, protests | Tagged democracy, iran, nuclear deal |
By Michael Allen on August 4, 2009
Huge crowds gathered in Manila yesterday to pay their respects to former President Corazon Aquino who died over the weekend. Media reports suggest that the turnout was the largest since a million people mobilized in the 1986 ”people power” revolution that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos and brought Aquino to power.
That event was the first of [read full story]
Posted in Democracy assistance, Philippines, democracy promotion, dictatorships, dissidents, foreign policy, promoting democracy, protests | Tagged color revolutions, democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Philippines, promoting democracy |
By Michael Allen on July 22, 2009
Kenya’s political class must abandon a winner-takes-all approach to politics, reform its corrupt judiciary and police force, and stop the extra-judicial killings that threaten civil society groups, a Washington conference heard today.
Echoing President Barack Obama’s call for strong institutions instead of a “strong man” approach to politics, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson [read full story]
Posted in Africa, Democracy assistance, Elections, Failed states, Human rights, Kenya, NGOs/Civil society, National Endowment for Democracy, Regions, corruption | Tagged corruption, democracy, Democracy assistance, Donald Payne, Gitobu Imanyara, House Democracy Assistance Commission, Joel Barkan, Johnnie Carson, judicial reform, Kenya, Maina Kiai, Makau Mutua, National Democratic Institute, National Endowment for Democracy |
By Michael Allen on June 19, 2009
Azerbaijan’s parliament, the Milli Mejlis, has postponed discussion of the proposed amendments to the NGO and media laws scheduled for today. Officials claimed that the deferral was due to lack of but democracy activists insist it was, in the words of one activist “clearly a political move” in response to “strong international and local resistance.”
Some [read full story]
Posted in Azerbaijan, Backlash, Eurasia, NGOs/Civil society, authoritarianism, democracy promotion, media | Tagged authoritarianism, azerbaijan, democracy, NGOs |
By Michael Allen on June 17, 2009
The U.S. State Department has announced the winners of its Democracy Video Challenge online video competition.
The winners, from more than 900 submissions, are Rodin Hamidi’s The Path; Chansa Tembo from Zambia; Aissa Penafiel’s Long Live the Fearless Man from the Philippines; Lukasz Szozda from Poland; Tsering Choden from Nepal; and Anna Israel from Brazil. You [read full story]
Posted in Global, NGOs/Civil society, National Endowment for Democracy, democracy promotion, media, promoting democracy | Tagged "Democracy is...", Center for International Private Enterprise, democracy, Democracy Video Challenge, Directors Guild of America, Hernando de Soto, International Republican Institute, International Youth Foundation, Motion Picture Association of America, National Democratic Institute, National Endowment for Democracy, U.S. Department of State |
By Michael Allen on June 8, 2009
The surprise victory of Lebanon’s pro-Western coalition in yesterday’s parliamentary elections is a setback to the region’s authoritarian ‘rejectionist’ axis. Many observers had expected the rival Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition, supported by Iran and Syria, to make gains and to emerge as the major force in a new coalition.
A Hezbollah victory would have been a [read full story]
Posted in Elections, Lebanon, Middle East and North Africa | Tagged authoritarianism, authoritarians, democracy, Hezbollah, Lebanon, March 14 coalition, March 8 coalition, National Democratic Institute, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden |
By Michael Allen on May 21, 2009
“Democracy requires the ballot box but is not reducible to it,” said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband today, calling for a ‘coalition of consent’ between the West and the Muslim world.
Democracy also requires a thriving civil society, he said, calling for greater efforts to “promote reform from the bottom-up – training journalists and judges, or [read full story]
Posted in Islam/politics, Middle East and North Africa, NGOs/Civil society, democracy promotion, promoting democracy | Tagged civil society, democracy, Muslim World, promoting democracy |
By Michael Allen on May 21, 2009
Russia’s crisis is worse than the rest of the world’s, writes Anders Åslund, due to inadequate reforms, extraordinary corruption and dependence on commodity exports. Although Dmitri Medvedev and his “ambitious technocrats” are ostensibly in charge, they have been unable to implement the necessary reforms as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin remains the de facto dominant power.
The [read full story]
Posted in Backlash, Eastern Europe, Human rights, NGOs/Civil society, Russia, authoritarianism, corruption, economic crisis | Tagged authoritarianism, civil society, corruption, democracy, Human rights, NGOs, Russia, tandemocracy, Vladimir Putin |
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