Suchergebnisse

IT IS UNFORTUNATE THAT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS RENEGED ON PRESIDENT REAGAN'S COMMITMENT TO PURSUE NEGOTIATIONS FOR FURTHER LIMITS ON NUCLEAR TESTING IMMEDIATELY AFTER RATIFICATION OF THE THRESHOLD TEST BAN TREATY. THIS BACKSLIDING SERIOUSLY UNDERCUTS U.S. NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION POLICY AND DIMINISHES U.S. CREDIBILITY AS A NEGOTIATING PARTNER.

Die schlechte wirtschaftliche Lage und die Knappheit an Material und Ausrüstung haben fast alle Zeitungen Kirgistans in eine finanzielle Abhängigkeit von der Regierung gebracht. Nach einer anfänglich liberalen Medienpolitik bedeutete das Verbot des Oppositionsblattes Svobodniye Gori den Beginn einer stärkeren staatlichen Kontrolle im Mediensektor. Parallel hierzu entwickelten sich in den Medien ebenso wie in Wissenschaft und Forschung Mechanismen der Selbstzensur. Auch die Berichterstattung über die Parlamentswahlen im Februar 1995 war von großer Vorsicht gekennzeichnet. Rundfunk und Fernsehen in Kirgistan lassen jede Diskussion lokaler, regionaler oder nationaler Fragen vermissen und beschränken sich im wesentlichen auf Volkskultur. (BIOst-Wpt)

The question I would like to address is the revival in Poland, Hungary and, I think, some other countries of the region, of the very old conservative style of politics, including the resurrection of the extreme right wing movements and, in Poland, of religious fundamentalism. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright the American Council of Learned Societies.]

Democratic backsliding (meaning the state-led debilitation or elimination of the political institutions sustaining an existing democracy) has changed dramatically since the Cold War. Open-ended coups d'état, executive coups, and blatant election-day vote fraud are declining while promissory coups, executive aggrandizement and strategic electoral manipulation and harassment are increasing. Contemporary forms of backsliding are especially vexing because they are legitimated by the very institutions democracy promoters prioritize but, overall, backsliding today reflects democracy's advance and not its retreat. The current mix of backsliding is more easily reversible than the past mix and successor dictatorships are shorter-lived and less authoritarian.

ABSTRACT
Despite the general narrative that the world is in a period of democratic decline, there have been surprisingly few empirical studies that assess whether this is systematically true. Most existing studies of global backsliding are based largely if not entirely on subjective indicators that rely on expert coder judgment. Our study surveys objective indicators of democracy (e.g., incumbent performance in elections) and finds little evidence of global democratic decline during the past decade. To explain the discrepancy in trends between expert-coded and objective indicators, we consider the role of coder bias and leaders strategically using more subtle undemocratic action. Although we cannot rule out the possibility that the world is becoming less democratic exclusively in ways that require subjective judgment to detect, this claim is not justified by existing evidence.

Recent developments in Hungary and Poland have made democratic backsliding a major issue of concern within the European Union (EU). This article focuses on the secondary agents that facilitate democratic backsliding in Hungary and Poland: the European People's Party (EPP), which has continually protected the Hungarian Fidesz government from EU sanctions, and the Hungarian ruling party Fidesz, which repeatedly promised to block any EU-level sanctions against Poland in the Council. The article analyses these agents' behaviour as an instance of transnational complicity and passes a tentative judgment as to which of the two cases is normatively more problematic. The analysis has implications for possible countervailing responses to democratic backsliding within EU member states.

Recent developments in Hungary and Poland have made democratic backsliding a major issue of concern within the European Union (EU). This article focuses on the secondary agents that facilitate democratic backsliding in Hungary and Poland: the European People's Party (EPP), which has continually protected the Hungarian Fidesz government from EU sanctions, and the Hungarian ruling party Fidesz, which repeatedly promised to block any EU-level sanctions against Poland in the Council. The article analyses these agents' behaviour as an instance of transnational complicity and passes a tentative judgment as to which of the two cases is normatively more problematic. The analysis has implications for possible countervailing responses to democratic backsliding within EU member states.

Thomas M. Keck (Syracuse University - Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs) has posted Free Speech in an Age of Democratic Backsliding (International Journal of Constitutional Law, 2023) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This review essay draws on...