Argument
An expert's point of view on a current event.

Democracy Lab Weekly Brief, June 20, 2016

To keep up with Democracy Lab in real time, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.  Juan Nagel accuses Argentina’s new president of betraying Venezuela’s opposition in pursuit of diplomatic victories on the world stage. Dan Peleschuk shows why Ukraine’s dismal roads are a microcosm of the country’s continued crisis of governance. Sarah Kendzior explains why ...

GettyImages-538816670 crop
GettyImages-538816670 crop

To keep up with Democracy Lab in real time, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. 

To keep up with Democracy Lab in real time, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. 

Juan Nagel accuses Argentina’s new president of betraying Venezuela’s opposition in pursuit of diplomatic victories on the world stage.

Dan Peleschuk shows why Ukraine’s dismal roads are a microcosm of the country’s continued crisis of governance.

Sarah Kendzior explains why young Americans are turning away from capitalism.

Seth Kaplan and Bassma Kodmani argue that Libya can only be saved by paying attention to the grassroots.

Neil Abrams and M. Steven Fish offer a how-to guide for cutting Ukraine’s oligarchs down to size.

And now for this week’s recommended reads: 

In the Washington Post, Azerbaijan’s recently released dissident journalist, Khadija Ismayilova, issues a broadside against the regime. (In case you missed it, Arzu Geybulla recently explained the significance of Ismayilova’s release in Democracy Lab.)

Also in the Post, Carlos Lozada reviews Islamic Exceptionalism, a new book in which Shadi Hamid argues that Islam’s relationship to politics is unique among the major religions.

For the New York Times, Nicholas Casey reports on food riots in Venezuela, where the economy has reached a breaking point. Meanwhile, in Foreign Affairs, Joshua Spivak worries that the Venezuelan opposition’s attempt to recall the country’s hapless president may backfire.

The Carnegie Endowment’s Rachel Kleinfeld and Rushda Majeed describe how one of India’s poorest states managed to overcome an insurgency that once seemed intractable.

For the Huffington Post, Samuel Ramani argues that it will take economic reforms — not just political ones — to solve Nigeria’s corruption problem.

The Christian Science Monitor’s Aidan Quigley reports that an Egyptian court has sentenced two Al-Jazeera journalists to death in absentia.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tony Wesolowsky points to a new study that describes the subtle workings of the pro-Moscow media in the Czech Republic.

In the photo, Venezuelean security forces clashes with citizens protesting against severe food and medicine shortages in Caracas on June 8.

Photo credit: RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images

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