by Rani Gold | May 3, 2019 | Georgetown University
In the past, the word “authoritarian” brought to mind images of violent repression, censorship, and intensive surveillance, an image that. Today, however, autocrats have a new set of tools that allow them to be subtler in their methods of control, both at home and...
by Justin Saint-Loubert-Bie | May 3, 2019 | University of Chicago
On April 30th, the Sri Lankan government lifted a ban on social media it had put in place following the Easter attacks that had killed 253 people. Officials had initiated the ban in fear that social media platforms would be used to spread misinformation inciting...
by Julia Fischer | Apr 29, 2019 | University of Chicago
In the article, “How Democracies Fall Apart,” Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Erica Frantz name various populist leaders that have come to power since the end of the Cold War, and they discuss how these “populist-fueled strongmen” have sought to gradually erode democracy...
by Matthew Sparks | Apr 22, 2019 | University of Chicago
On paper, at least, Russia has all of the necessary institutions of a functioning liberal democracy, with regular elections and even bodies specifically devoted to overseeing the election process. Certainly, there have been some warning signs, especially in the...
by Jonathan Eckel | Mar 10, 2019 | Suffolk University
Putin’s reign of power in Russia has been augmented, in part, by his ever-increasing vice grip on independent media outlets and oppositional voices. Currently, Russia ranks 148th out of 180 countries in terms of its media freedom and is only ahead of completely...
