Democracy Lab Weekly Brief, November 7, 2016

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

Christian Caryl warns that the murderous war on drugs led by President Duterte of the Philippines is just the beginning.

Christopher Sabatini and Mercedes Hoffay explain why Nicaragua’s election yesterday marked the extinction of its democracy.

Andrea Glioti calls for an effort to encourage Syrian soldiers to defect from Bashar Assad’s army.

Brian Klaas calls out both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for failing to make a case for promoting democracy abroad.

Antoun Issa explains why many Lebanese couldn’t care less about the election of their new president.

And now for this week’s recommended reads:

Mikheil Saakashvili has resigned from his position as governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region, reports Emily Tamkin for Foreign Policy. Democracy Lab has covered the mercurial former president of Georgia on several occasions: Ian Bateson described his struggle against corrupt local elites, Vladislav Davidzon questioned his populist reaction to a local tragedy, Adrian Karatnycky warned against viewing him as a cure-all for Ukraine’s woes, and Ievgen Vorobiov wrote about his first steps as governor.

In the Washington Post’s “Monkey Cage” blog, Amy Erica Smith and Mollie J. Cohen show that support for authoritarian leaders is lowest among the most educated.

For Foreign Policy, Matthew Luxmoore profiles Hromadske TV, Ukraine’s pioneering independent news outlet. And in the Kyiv Post, Alyona Zhuk and Olena Goncharova report on the latest troubles facing the country’s National Television Company.

In the New Yorker, Caleb Crain evaluates some provocative recent arguments against democracy.

In Bloomberg, Tyler Cowen worries that the internet has grown much faster than our ability to understand or to control it.

Nurcan Basyal writes for openDemocracy from Diyarbakir, a Kurdish city under assault by the Turkish government.

For Rogue Chiefs, Charles Onyango-Obbo explains why African autocrats are so good at clinging to power even when they’re old and sick.

For the Atlantic Council’s “AfricaSource” blog, Chloe McGrath argues that South Africa’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court is part of President Zuma’s campaign to suppress dissent.

In a new paper for the Project on Middle East Democracy, Amy Hawthorne recommends that the United States rethink its approach to providing Egypt with economic assistance.

In the photo, Nicaraguans look for their names in the electoral roster at a polling station during the presidential election on November 6 in Managua.

Photo credit: RODRIGO ARANGUA/AFP/Getty Images