Emilia Simison
We associate authoritarian regimes with certain policies. However, the relationship between regime type and policy is not straightforward – and not all transitions towards authoritarianism bring policy change. To better understand this, Emilia Simison suggests paying attention to differences within authoritarian regimes and how the adjectives of autocracy affect policy Read more
Massimo D'Angelo
Next June, in Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will seek election as President of the Republic for the third time. Massimo D’Angelo explains the opposition parties' joint strategy to defeat Erdoğan, including a pact to overhaul institutions and restore the rule of law Read more
Eri Mountbatten-O'Malley
Ethical democratic practices are informed by understanding what it means to be human and how we may flourish as a species alongside non-humans. This is, Eri Mountbatten-O’Malley argues, a useful way to orient ourselves in a dark time for democracy Read more
Orlaith Rice
Frustration with integration policy and fear of crime, two issues which Swedish political rhetoric and public opinion increasingly conflates, fuels the Sweden Democrats’ onward journey into mainstream politics. Orlaith Rice considers where SD sits under labels of populism and illiberalism Read more
Stephen Bagwell
The case of Hong Kong shows that Chinese Communist Party dominance has a negative impact on empowerment rights. For Taiwan, though, it could end up much worse. Stephen Bagwell and Meridith LaVelle explore the potential outcomes of this scenario, using evidence from Hong Kong and data from the Human Rights Measurement Initiative Read more
Luca Manucci
We have, in the intellectual world, spent much time trying to understand populism, fascism, illiberalism and the processes of autocratisation. Now, argues Luca Manucci, it is time to debate and establish the best strategies to fight against these tendencies and establish democratic resilience Read more
Phil Paine
Phil Paine is reminded of the caterpillar who, when asked in which order it moved each of its feet, found itself ‘distracted in a ditch, wondering how it walked’. He suspects that there are misapprehensions about the role of definitions in advancing democracy Read more
Marco Giani
Studying long-run patterns of public opinion in Europe shows that reintroducing compulsory national service would not counter the worrisome trend of declining trust in institutions among young generations. In fact, warns Marco Giani, the effect could be quite the opposite Read more
