Sectarian violence could jeopardize Burma’s fragile democratization process, President Thein Sein warned, as the government declared a state of emergency to stem violent conflict between Buddhists and Muslims.

“If we put racial and religious issues,….the never-ending hatred, desire for revenge and anarchic actions at the forefront,” said Thein Sein, “there’s a danger that…the country’s stability and peace, democratization process and development, [READ MORE]

Russian security forces armed with assault rifles today raided the homes of several opposition leaders, a day before a planned mass rally by critics of President Vladimir Putin.

The searches and a new law sharply increasing fines for protest violations highlight the ascendancy of hardline elements in the [READ MORE]

The new head of Syria’s main opposition group has urged government officials to defect from a regime that is “on its last legs,” echoing similar demands by the rebel Free Syrian Army, which also called for a campaign of mass “civil disobedience” and a general strike to increase pressure on President Bashar al-Assad’s Baathist [READ MORE]

“After voting the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) out of Los Pinos, Mexico’s presidential residence, twelve years ago, the country looks poised to bring it back,” notes Shannon K. O’Neil.

The party “continues to be a club of corruption, a preserve of tightly linked political and business interests, a network woven together through the constant exchange of favors [READ MORE]

Russia’s don’t need Western assistance or democracy promotion, says a leading liberal, as President Vladimir Putin today “signed into law a controversial bill that dramatically raises fines on illegal protests.”

But growing discontent with the regime was confirmed by news that a growing number of Russians want to emigrate [READ MORE]

Is Libya’s transitional process likely to produce “only another Somalia-like failed state?

The authorities are making great strides – technically, at least – in advancing the country’s political transition. But the government’s inability to secure a monopoly on the use of force is undermining the legitimacy of the National Transitional [READ MORE]

“Recent events in China, Russia and the Arab world vividly demonstrate that democracy remains a universal aspiration, but also that the forces of repression have powerful means to resist the tide,” the Washington Post notes:

Thirty [READ MORE]

Tunisia’s government is struggling to deal with the economic grievances that sparked last year’s popular uprising and a fresh wave of protests could threaten the country’s fragile political transition, according to a new report.

The Islamist-secular coalition running the government needs to do more to address rising unemployment, regional economic discrepancies and corruption, says the latest International Crisis Group.

The [READ MORE]

The United Nations should appoint a special rapporteur on Belarus, a leading human rights group said today.

The call coincides with reports that Belarusian intelligence services are using the Internet to monitor pro-democracy activists in neighboring states with the aim of gleaning information to mount prosecutions of the regime’s critics. Such operations, which violate the [READ MORE]

The U.S. should take a time-out from supporting Egypt’s democrats, a former envoy suggested yesterday, suggesting that Washington was courting unpopularity and damaging diplomatic relations with Cairo.

But a forum of eminent politicians, diplomats and democracy practitioners suggests otherwise.

“As an instrument of public diplomacy — winning international support by inspiring emulation — instruction in the arts of [READ MORE]

The abject failure of the Facebook revolutionaries’ postmodern politics is one reason why the two candidates in Egypt’s presidential election represent the country’s most authoritarian and hierarchical institutions, writes Jon Alterman, Middle East program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“A powerful sense of innovation and possibility surrounded the February 2011 protests that pushed [READ MORE]

Countries that have achieved the greatest success since the Cold War’s end are now displaying serious vulnerabilities in their still young democratic systems. Over the past five years, findings of Nations in Transit—Freedom House’s annual assessment of democratic development from Central Europe to Central Eurasia—have demonstrated stagnation and backsliding in key governance indicators across the new EU member [READ MORE]

The “tortuous political transition” was thrown into further turmoil by the announcement that the Supreme Constitutional Court will examine the legality of a disenfranchisement law that could invalidate the presidential candidacy of Ahmed Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister, just two days before the run-off.

The constitutional drafting process has been paralyzed since the Muslim [READ MORE]

Democratic regression in Hungary and Ukraine is raising questions about the vulnerabilities of young democracies in Central and Southeastern Europe, according to the findings of the 2012 Nations in Transit report. Fearing the demonstration effect of the Arab awakening, authoritarian regimes in Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan cracked down on independent voices, write Christopher Walker and Sylvana Habdank–Kolaczkowska. But much [READ MORE]

A former U.S. envoy to Cairo today called for a “time out” in funding for pro-democracy non-governmental groups supporting Egypt’s transition.

Funding for Egyptian civil society groups is “unwise” during a time of political upheaval, former diplomat Frank G. Wisner told the Center for American Progress, a liberal think-tank.

“Do we want to be busy on the ground with U.S.-funded [READ MORE]