Documents on Democracy, January 2009

The opposition within Cuba has become more diverse as well as more unified, and the regime, despite its enduring capacity for repression, is showing signs of underlying weakness.

Nonpartisan election monitoring has helped to foster democratization over the last thirty years, but now dictators are trying to sabotage it, often by spreading lies and confusion.

Excerpts from a petition containing "Twelve Suggestions for Dealing with the Tibet Situation," written by 29 Chinese intellectuals after the Chinese government put down protests in Tibet against Beijing's treatment…