While the rest of Latin America enjoys economic growth and healthy democratic development, Venezuela is one of the few exceptions. With Hugo Chávez striving to stifle opposition and consolidate authoritarian rule, it is time for friends of Venezuelan democracy to fight back, writes Daniel H. Levine.
We are witnessing the agony of democracy in Venezuela. The regime of [READ MORE]
Can Egypt’s democratic movement win the current “battle for momentum”? Would strategic advantage be gained from tactical retreat? And what should the Obama administration be doing?
Today’s huge demonstration confirmed the opposition’s impressive capacity to mobilize, but that is not enough, writes Larry Diamond.
“Democratic movements do not triumph without strategy and organization,” he cautions. “The imperative now [READ MORE]
President Hugo Chávez is making nice?
Venezuela’s populist president called for dialog and conciliation between the country’s polarized political camps prior to his annual state-of-the-nation speech to the National Assembly this week.
He told newly-elected opposition deputies he was willing to moderate recently acquired powers to rule [READ MORE]
History – and the grim realities of a bad neighborhood’s pervasive authoritarianism – do not justify optimism about the prospects for democracy in Tunisia, writes Larry Diamond (right), Director of Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Yet the third wave of global democratization saw successful [READ MORE]
Democracy advocates are mourning the loss of Jiri Dienstbier, a leading figure in the 1989 Velvet Revolution who went on to become post-communist Czechoslovakia’s first foreign minister.
“A friend of mine for many years has died,” said former Czech President Vaclav Havel. “We experienced so much together.”
His life “encapsulated an [READ MORE]
What is to be done when a member of a democratic club of nations appears to take an authoritarian turn?
The European Union has arguably been the world’s leading democracy promoter over recent years, but now Hungary, which holds the EU’s presidency, is accused of undermining democratic institutions, including independent media.
Since Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s [READ MORE]
You’ve heard of Daniel Pearl and Anna Politkovskaya, but who knows about Atwar Bahjat or Valentín Valdés Espinosa (pictured right)?
Some journalists “are old enough to recall a time back in the 1980s when raising a white flag and writing TV [READ MORE]
The state of Africa’s independent media is a mixed bag, according to a discussion of the continent’s media environment at the National Endowment for Democracy. Improvements in media freedom and expansion of community radio are real advances, but poor professional standards and political bias weaken the media, the June 12 panel heard. “We have come a long way [READ MORE]