Authoritarianism Archives - Page 2 of 4

Democracy

The Mood Has Changed

From confrontation to subversion: the evolution of protest culture in Belarus

November 19, 2020 • by Ingo Petz

————— In a few short summer months, Belarus completely rewrote its role in world history. Became a part of it. This is about far more than who has formal sovereignty. It’s about our own style and our own place. Ihar Babkoŭ, 8.30.2020 ————— In an unprecedented and historic act of collective politicization, the Belarusian population has overcome ...

Democracy

Mini-Trumps in the Wilderness

Trump’s loss of the presidency in 2020 may spell disaster for his fellow populists in Eastern Europe

November 18, 2020 • by Sławomir Sierakowski

Joe Biden’s election as president of the United States has seriously weakened authoritarian and populist governments around the world. For independent global powers like Russia, Brazil, and Turkey, Donald Trump’s departure need not amount to a complete tragedy. But for the current governments of Poland, Hungary, and Serbia -- and ...

Democracy

Europe Reacts to the 2020 US Presidential Election

The resilience of American democracy gives us reason to hope

November 12, 2020 • by Valerio Alfonso Bruno and Parsi Vittorio Emanuele

Europeans have long awaited the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election with conflicting feelings of fear and hope. In Berlin, Paris, and Brussels, leaders have hoped that a Biden presidency might spur a renewal of transatlantic relations, while in Warsaw and Budapest, populist executives hoped for a second Trump ...

Europe Reacts to the 2020 US Presidential Election

Democracy

The Showdown Between Democracy and Autocracy

Why the broad anti-Trump coalition must prepare for a post-election crisis

October 29, 2020 • by Claudia Koonz

Could democracy in the United States die? A number of troubling signs, such as Donald Trump’s refusal to endorse a peaceful transfer of power and his refusal to condemn white supremacists, lead many to worry about what has, until recently, been unthinkable. As a historian of Nazi Germany, I share this ...

Democracy

Ghosts of Weimar

Is factual accuracy even the point when it comes to the discourse of antifascism?

October 15, 2020 • by Anton Shekhovtsov

Alexander Yanov, the emigré historian of Russia and Russian nationalism, was critical of major Western approaches towards post-Soviet Russia in the 1990s. He criticized the "devious simplicity" of the Western logic holding that, because a non-market Russia had been the West’s sworn enemy, a free-market Russia would become its partner. ...

Democracy

Far-Right Populism is Bad Enough

On fascism, populism, and democracy

October 15, 2020 • by Jan-Werner Mueller

From more or less mad Roman emperors to -- of course -- Adolf Hitler, by now it would seem easier to name historical figures to whom Donald Trump has not been linked than ones whom he has been said to resemble. By the same token, there has been a deluge ...

Democracy

Digital Authoritarianism and Trolling in Turkey

September 22, 2020 • by Funda Başaran

In 2007, Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) had its second election victory, increasing its vote share to 47,8 and consolidating power. In the same year, it imposed important regulations to ‘clean’ the Internet of undesirable content. Law 5651, On Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Combating Crimes committed ...

Digital Authoritarianism and Trolling in Turkey

Democracy

White Liberals Must Face the Truth: Donald Trump Represents all Republicans

The GOP isn’t a deranged cult. It’s a party of dangerous politics

September 10, 2020 • by John Stoehr

----------------- Ezra Klein, a prominent white liberal, is the top editor at Vox. During August’s Republican National Convention, he tweeted something I think we should address head-on. “This isn’t a political party,” Klein said. “It’s a personality cult.” There are good reasons for making such a claim. The president’s most ardent supporters exhibit traits ...

White Liberals Must Face the Truth: Donald Trump Represents all Republicans

Democracy

Authoritarian Appetites versus Local Solidarity

July 10, 2020 • by Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer

This piece was originally published in Polish in Res Publica Nowa. The English translation is provided by the author. Commenting on the Covid-19 Pandemic, Ursula Von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, recently said that Europe is the “world’s beating heart of solidarity.” Indeed, for two months now news ...

Authoritarian Appetites versus Local Solidarity

Latin America & Caribbean

Authoritarian Coup or Deposed Authoritarian Leader

A response to Andrew Arato’s reflections on Bolivia

December 27, 2019 • by Enrique Peruzzotti

In the past, coups were coups; they were all-or-nothing events where there could be no disagreement over what occurred. Coups consisted of the unlawful removal of an elected government by a (non-elected) segment of the state apparatus (usually the military) and the temporary suspension of the constitutional order in a ...

Authoritarian Coup or Deposed Authoritarian Leader

Feature

A Ticket for the Rome Express

A Strategy for Democracy

September 27, 2019 • by Andrew Arato

In Budapest, and shortly before local elections, some of my friends now speak of the Istanbul Express. As readers know, in that enormous city, followers of the slightly left Republican People’s Party (CHP), of the Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and a small nationalist grouping, “the Good Party,” united to ...

Democracy

Turkey’s Authoritarianism and Crisis Management

It’s Complicated!

August 26, 2019 • by Ali Rıza Güngen

For many observers, it is the authoritarian shift and the irresponsible policies accompanying the regime change of 2017-18 that led to the latest economic crisis in Turkey. They generally tend to deem the 2003-07 period as the golden years of the Turkish economy, despite the fact that Turkey’s credit-led model ...