Democracy Lab Weekly Brief, October 3, 2016

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Anna Nemtsova reports from Georgia, where a car bomb raised tensions before this weekend’s election.

Zia Weise has an update on the strange disappearance of a Kurdish politician in Turkey: Somehow, he’s just turned up in Iraq.

Brian Klaas argues that sometimes the best way to end a conflict is to forgive those who were behind it.

Sophie Cousins reports from northern Burma, where Christian anti-drug squads are terrorizing heroin addicts.

Alexander Motyl explains what Ukraine can learn from how Germany handled its post-war divisions. 

And now for this week’s recommended reads:

Lincoln Mitchell provides a detailed look at what happened in Georgia’s parliamentary election over the weekend.

In First Things, Edward Lucas argues that a true “realism” would recognize the needs and desires of Russia’s former subject peoples, not just of Russia itself.

For Brookings, Michael O’Hanlon proposes devolving power to regions or states as the best way to end the Syrian civil war.

For BloombergView, Victoria Bateman points out the irony that the political forces who once defended globalization are now the ones attacking it.

In the Nation, Arthur Goldhammer considers what Alexis de Tocqueville would have made of Donald Trump.

For openDemocracy, Tom Junes explains why last week’s “Black Monday” protests against a proposed abortion ban in Poland may be a game-changer for the right-wing government.

For the Guardian, Kate Lamb reports on the terrifying wave of murders — carried out by police death squads — taking place in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte. And in the “long read” section, Alexander Stille dives into the case of Giulio Regeni, an Italian student murdered in Egypt.

The Legatum Institute’s Transitions Forum releases a new report by Alistair Shawcross about how to make fact-checking better.

International IDEA has a new report by Leonardo Morlino assessing the (improving) quality of Latin American democracy.

And finally, check out SyriaWire, an English-language news project featuring content by refugee journalists.

In the photo, people take part in a demonstration against a legislative proposal for a total ban of abortion on October 3 in Warsaw.

Photo credit: JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP/Getty Images