How Dictators Use Sports to Win Friends and Influence People
Authoritarians are developing new tools to project their malign influence across the globe. The world of sports can teach us a lot about the games they play.
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Authoritarians are developing new tools to project their malign influence across the globe. The world of sports can teach us a lot about the games they play.
The Chinese Communist Party is attempting to rename the Tibetan people’s homeland, part of a wider effort to eradicate Tibet’s cultural identity. For Tibet, it’s more than just a name.
How do autocrats control the media? Will Syria be free now that Assad has fallen? What’s to blame for democratic backsliding? Why must Ukraine win? The April issue of the Journal of Democracy tackles some of today’s most pressing questions.
Washington is pressuring Ukraine to agree to a peace deal with Russia that bows to many Russian demands while leaving Ukraine vulnerable. Robert Person argues that Putin cannot be trusted and Kyiv must not surrender to these demands.
Romania’s democracy just survived a near-death experience, but it may be more vulnerable going forward. How far can leaders go in defending democracy without compromising their claim to represent the people?
The Romanian government is trying to guard against Russian election interference. But such a drastic, unexpected, and last-minute move risks undermining people’s faith in democracy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu-nationalist BJP explicitly exclude and routinely attack the country’s largest minority, but the political opposition is silent, too afraid to jeopardize its base of support. These essays explore India’s complex democratic history and its prospects for the future.
Determined to project their influence abroad, authoritarian regimes are subverting international rules and norms while disguising their misdeeds. The easiest way to do this? Convince the world they are benign, upstanding members of the international community.
So, why don’t they want to fix it?
South Koreans have elected Lee Jae-myung president. Will he be a pragmatic democratic reformer? Or will he continue the polarizing political warfare of recent South Korean leaders?
Los bosques amazónicos de Bolivia se están convirtiendo en tierra arrasada, con millones de acres perdidos cada año a causa de incendios descontrolados. Peor aún, este desastre está siendo provocado por un gobierno más interesado en obtener ganancias corruptas que en proteger a su pueblo y su fauna.
Bolivia’s Amazon forests are becoming scorched earth, with millions of acres lost each year to raging fires. Worse, this disaster is being caused by a government more interested in corrupt profits than protecting its people and wildlife.
Romania is the latest example of rising far-right populism across Europe. The essays below examine the forces driving these illiberal political movements.
There is no clear roadmap. But Poland may be setting out on its first steps in stamping out populism and holding accountable those responsible for the worst violations of the rule of law.
Political blunders, distrust of elites, and Donald Tusk’s inability to deliver on his promises helped make an unknown, far-right former bodyguard the country’s next president. Worse, it will be far harder now to safeguard Polish democracy.
Strongman nostalgia, conspiracy theories, and lies. It’s a powerful blend that keeps populists in power. In the Philippines, political clans have weaponized these messages against each other.
The Kremlin works hard to indoctrinate Russia’s youth to support Putin’s war in Ukraine. But a strong percentage support an immediate ceasefire and don’t think it’s a cause worth dying for.
Mexico launched a radical overhaul of its judiciary on June 1 with its first-ever judicial election. The controversial plan risks weakening judicial independence, checks on presidential power, and democracy itself.
South Koreans just elected a new president. Will he be good for South Korean democracy?
Voters across the world see democracy as unresponsive, out of touch, inept, and even corrupt. Something needs to change, but no one can agree on what. What democracy needs, Joel Day argues in a new Journal of Democracy online exclusive, is a single bold and effective reform plan.