Incentives are everything. Since its founding in 1993, the European Union (EU) has understood this and become a master of soft power pressure and incentive-based democratic reforms. Indeed, as much as …
A Cause To Celebrate?
This past week, The United States underwent one of the most tense elections in our history. The probability of violence with the victory of either candidate was strong. Cities all across the country …
Returned From Exile: Evo Morales Once Again Poses a Threat to Bolivian Democracy
(AP Photo/Juan Karita) After nearly a year in exile, former President Evo Morales returned to Bolivia on November 9th to a crowd of adoring fans at the Argentinian border. In spite of his …
Enabling Democratic Erosion: How Polish Government Polarized the Society
Scholars of political science who study the phenomenon of democratic erosion often analyze the relationship of it with polarization. While there is no academic consensus on which one causes which, a …
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How Twitter Changes Stealth Authoritarian’s Approach to News Media
In the grand scheme of checks and balances on authoritarian tendencies, the media ideally plays an impartial role as a guardrail against democratic backsliding. 2016 posed a unique challenge to this …
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How Populist Tactics Solidify the Legitimacy of North Korea’s Supreme Leader
The core of populism is in creating an image of the people and representing them to justify political power. [1] It is based on a myth as “the people” as a singular entity does not exist. A populist …