Democracy Lab Weekly Brief, September 28, 2015
To keep up with Democracy Lab in real time, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Michael Cecire explains why NATO keeps rebuffing Georgia’s attempts to join the alliance — and what the country should do next. Elliot Prasse-Freeman critiques reporting about Burma’s economic opening that fails to interrogate the growing divide between the haves and ...
To keep up with Democracy Lab in real time, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Michael Cecire explains why NATO keeps rebuffing Georgia’s attempts to join the alliance — and what the country should do next.
Elliot Prasse-Freeman critiques reporting about Burma’s economic opening that fails to interrogate the growing divide between the haves and the have-nots.
And now for this week’s recommended reads:
In the Moscow Times, Reid Nelson urges Russia’s opposition to adopt more democratic practices and organize more effectively at the local level if they hope to make a difference.
The Transnational Institute has published a joint statement by Burma’s opium farmers explaining why they harvest the crop, demanding not to be treated as criminals, and offering policy recommendations for local and international leaders.
In the New York Times’ opinion page, jailed Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López calls for fair elections, economic reforms, and greater international pressure on his government.
On the one-year anniversary of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests, Tom Phillips reports for the Guardian on some rueful soul-searching among local activists. (In the photo, pro-democracy activists mark one year since the start of mass pro-democracy rallies calling for fully free elections in Hong Kong on September 28, 2015.)
In Quartz Africa, Omar Mohammed assesses Africans’ views of their political systems.
In openDemocracy, Nadia Marzouki and Fadil Aliriza worry that Tunisia’s future is no longer in the hands of its people.
Human Rights Watch reports that the Rwandan authorities are holding people unlawfully in an unofficial detention center.
In the Kyiv Post, Sandra MacKenzie reports on a Ukrainian lawyer who wants to provide free legal advice to all of the country’s veterans.
In the World Bank blog, Ha Minh Nguyen, Maya Eden, and David Bulman challenge the notion of the “middle-income trap,” finding that there is no systemic slow-down in growth as countries reach middle-income status.
And finally, if you’re in Washington DC on October 7, check out Democracy International’s panel discussion about Burma’s upcoming elections.
Photo credit: PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images
Ilya Lozovsky was an assistant editor at Foreign Policy from 2015-2017.
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