Democracy Lab Weekly Brief, September 15, 2015

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Hannah Thoburn describes the struggles of a Crimean Tatar radio station that has fled Crimea to Kiev to continue operating in the wake of the Russian occupation.

Christian Caryl dismantles the Russian and Chinese argument that “Western democracy” is responsible for Europe’s refugee crisis. If that’s the case, why are the refugees heading west?

Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Erica Frantz explain why the death of a dictator usually doesn’t lead to the downfall of his regime.

Nick Danforth asks what Turkey’s President Erodgan will do if, as expected, the country’s voters once again refuse to give him a majority.

Juan Nagel reports on the sentencing of Venezuela’s main opposition leader to 13 years in prison — and what the regime can expect in the wake of his trial.

Curbing Corruption: Ideas That Work 

Richard Messick chronicles a massive FBI investigation that took down corrupt judges in Chicago’s crooked courts.

Nieves Zúñiga and Paul M. Heywood report on the comprehensive anti-corruption campaign that cleaned up the Bolivian city of La Paz.

These two case studies are part of Democracy Lab’s series highlighting what actually works in tackling corruption. In case you missed any of the others:  

Christian Caryl profiled a crusading Costa Rican newspaper, Mohammad Omar Masud explained how a Pakistani official solicited citizen feedback through mobile phones, Blair Glencorse and Suman Parajuli covered a Nepalese reality show focused on civil servants’ integrity, and Rushda Majeed looked at Indonesia’s anti-corruption commission.

Gabriel Kuris focused on Croatia’s own anti-corruption body, Anna Petherick showcased Brazil’s program of randomly auditing local governments, and Christofer Berglund and Johan Engvall told the story of how Georgia cleaned up its notoriously corrupt higher education system.

This Thursday, Democracy Lab and the Legatum Institute are hosting a panel discussion in London to discuss the major challenges facing the global anti-corruption movement. The event is now full, but the panel will be livestreamed here at 18:00 BST (1:00 PM EST).

Join the discussion on Twitter with #CurbCorruption (and be sure to follow @LegatumInst and @FP_DemLab).

And now for this week’s recommended reads:

In openDemocracy, Colin Irwin explains how public opinion polls can be used to highlight the peaceful voice of the silent majority in conflict situations.

In DevEx, Michael Igoe highlights five emails from the Hillary Clinton trove that shed light on the inner workings of Washington’s development industry.

In the Global Anticorruption Blog, Beatriz Paterno discusses the role of the Philippine Catholic Church in that country’s battle against corruption and Matthew Stephenson offers some snarky suggestions for improving anticorruption conferences.

In a new book, Richard Youngs takes a critical look at the concept of “non-Western democracy” and suggests more productive ways to discuss democratic variation in the world.

This Friday, join the National Endowment for Democracy for an panel discussion about democracy promotion during a democratic recession featuring Larry Diamond, Thomas Carothers, Louisa Greve, and Peter Lewis.

Foreign Policy Podcasts

If you haven’t heard, Foreign Policy launched FP Podcasts last week. The first two programs were The Editor’s Roundtable (The E.R.) and Global Thinkers. These podcasts are unique in their ability to bring together the powerful with those committed to speaking truth to power. Listen and subscribe today.

In the photo, people dressed as zebras encourage pedestrians to cross the street legally in La Paz, Bolivia on March 11, 2010.

Photo credit: Tristan Savatier