Democracy Lab Weekly Brief, May 4, 2015
To keep up with Democracy Lab in real time, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Farah Samti reports from Tunisia on how the country’s new freedoms have enabled LGBTs to speak out — and conservative forces to strike back. Paramenda Bhagat shows how the Nepal earthquake has also laid bare the country’s intractable political dysfunction. Dana Walrath argues ...
To keep up with Democracy Lab in real time, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Farah Samti reports from Tunisia on how the country’s new freedoms have enabled LGBTs to speak out — and conservative forces to strike back.
Paramenda Bhagat shows how the Nepal earthquake has also laid bare the country’s intractable political dysfunction.
Dana Walrath argues that Armenians will be unable to put the genocide behind them as long as it’s denied by Turkey — and the United States.
Democracy Lab’s Ilya Lozovsky explains why a sex scandal in the Ukrainian parliament could actually be a sign of progress.
S.Y. Quraishi and Sam van der Staak call for India and Indonesia’s new leaders to make good on their promises to stem the tide of legal and illegal campaign finance.
And now for this week’s recommended reads:
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum draws attention to threats against Burma’s Rohingya people, warning that “many preconditions for genocide are already in place.”
In the Atlantic, Jeffrey Tayler profiles Lilian Tintori, a Venezuelan kite-surfing champion who has become an anti-regime activist after the political arrest of her husband. (In the photo, Tintori celebrates her imprisoned husband’s 42nd birthday on April 29.)
In the Monkey Cage, Thomas Risse and Nelli Babayan contend that democratic and not-democratic powers are more alike than we like to think. Also in the Monkey Cage, Ken Opalo provides a primer on the continuing political crisis in Burundi, where President Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term in office has prompted protests.
Writing for the Atlantic Council, Fadil Aliriza reports that Tunisian police are still abusing citizens in the name of security despite the revolution.
International Crisis Group takes a comprehensive look at Burma’s electoral landscape as the country prepares for national elections in November.
The Carnegie Endowment’s Ashraf El-Sherif traces the political fortunes of Egypt’s Salafists through the country’s turbulent last few years.
The National Endowment for Democracy has launched a new blog, “Resurgent Dictatorship,” that shows how authoritarian regimes are cooperating in an assault on democratic institutions around the world.
Photo Credit: FEDERICO PARRA/AFP/Getty Images
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