Thareeat Laohabut
The fashion for seeing all authoritarian regimes through the lens of ‘democratic backsliding’ or ‘autocratisation’ has overshadowed our understanding of the strategies of classic authoritarians. Thareerat Laohabut uses the case of Thailand to illustrate this problem, showing how civil-millitary relations supporting the regime have been inadequately understood Read more
José J. Sanmartín
José J. Sanmartín explores the significance of last month's midterm elections in the US, detecting deep undercurrents at work in American politics. These, he says, will not only shape the next presidential election campaign. They may also determine the United States’ vision of itself in the longer term Read more
Igor Ahedo Gurrutxaga
Igor Ahedo Gurrutxaga uses a puzzle to achieve organisational change in public institutions. Solving the puzzle seems difficult, because it requires us to think outside the box. Yet the answer can serve as a metaphor for the need to change an organisation’s attitude Read more
Alex Prior
The ‘total texture’ of democracy exists, and we can observe it, argues Alex Prior. This is possible through a conceptualisation of this ‘texture’ as fractal: being complex and self-referential at every scale. Through this perspective, we can problematise long-standing – but nevertheless incomplete – analogies of democracy and democratisation Read more
Frowin Rausis
Qatar is basking in the global spotlight as host of the 2022 World Cup. Less prominently, it is the latest country to introduce an asylum law. Frowin Rausis argues that Qatar’s new-found status as a global host, of football and of asylum seekers, serves to showcase the country, and boost its global reputation Read more
Julian G. Waller
The lure of typology is irresistible for social scientists, yet commonly used schemas classifying authoritarian politics still miss key variation. Our frameworks often rely on organisational assumptions set one level of abstraction too high. Julian G. Waller demonstrates how a closer look at constitutional structure can confront this problem Read more
Carlos José Cruz Infante
One of the European Union's six priorities for 2019–2024 is to strengthen its voice on the world stage. Yet, writes Carlos Cruz Infante, the EU has not sufficiently explored its opportunities with the Latin American continent. Attractive opportunities remain if the bloc embraces them soon Read more
Adrian Bua
Adrian Bua argues that a critical democratic realism, grounding democratisation efforts upon critique of the capitalist social order, is the best way to navigate Jean-Paul Gagnon's ‘data mountain’ – and put it to work for democracy Read more
