Democracy Lab Weekly Brief, June 27, 2016

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Emanuel Stoakes warns that the Bahraini regime is tightening the screws on its critics even as it continues to make deals with the West.

Tik Root finds a culture of entrepreneurship taking hold in Rwanda and asks whether the government-led initiative will stick.

Nate Schenkkan argues that Turkey’s latest crackdown on dissent means it’s time for Europe to walk away from its refugee deal with Ankara.

Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez describes the Venezuelan government’s sudden arrest of his friend, opposition activist, and Democracy Lab contributor Francisco “Pancho” Marquez Lara.

Brian Klaas uses the example of Madagascar to explain how fake democracies damage real ones.

And now for this week’s recommended reads:

In Foreign Affairs, Larry Diamond offers his thoughts on how the United States can reverse the decline of democracy around the world.

For Commentary, Sohrab Ahmari describes a worldwide rise of illiberalism of which Donald Trump, Brexit, and the European populists are just a few examples.

In the Atlantic, Emma Green interviews Shadi Hamid, the author of a recent book about Islamic exceptionalism, about why liberal democracy seems to hold so little appeal.

In Foreign Policy, Matt Qvortrup explains where all these referendums came from.

In the New York Times, Hussein Ibish describes Tunisia’s Ennahda as the “first post-Islamist party in the Arab world.”

For the Carnegie Moscow Center, Andrei Kolesnikov argues that Russia’s undemocratic political system has its roots in Boris Yeltsin’s crooked 1996 electoral victory.

RFE/RL’s Tom Balmforth reports on Russia’s jubilant reaction to the Brexit vote.

The Financial Times’ John Paul Rathbone surveys Latin America’s very recent rejection of populism.

Human Rights Watch announces that it has joined over a hundred other NGOs in signing a statement sharply critical of the European Union’s new approach to reducing migration.

The New York Review of Books publishes an excerpt from Yasmine El Rashidi’s new book about coming of age in a repressive Egypt, Chronicle of a Last Summer.

For South Africa’s City Press, Ndileka Lujabe reports that Jimi Matthews, the CEO of the country’s public broadcaster, has resigned in protest of pressure from above to curtail critical reporting.

In the photo, a demonstrator puts his hand on a fence with padlocks left by prisoners during a demonstration in front of the Metris prison on June 24, 2016 in Istanbul.

Photo credit: OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images