Democracy Lab

Argument

How to Rebuild Eastern Ukraine

Nearly two years after pro-Russian separatists wrested large portions of eastern Ukraine from government control, the industrial region -- known as the Donbass -- remains ...

Dispatch

How a Fictional President Is Helping Ukrainians Rethink Their Absurd Politics

Under growing pressure from the International Monetary Fund, Ukrainian lawmakers pass an unpopular bill that will raise taxes on alcohol. Angry protesters surround government buildings ...

Argument

How Egypt’s Copts Fell Out of Love with President Sisi

When the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, was ousted by a military coup in July 2013, the country’s Coptic Christians rejoiced. They saw General ...

Argument

Lebanon Has a New President (Not That It Matters)

Transitions

How Zimbabwe Made Zimbabwe’s Flag Illegal

Transitions

A Car Bomb Rattles Georgians As Election Nears

Argument

Libya’s Hollow Victory Over the Islamic State

Little noticed by the outside world, Libyans have almost succeeded in achieving a long-awaited victory over the Islamic State. For months, bolstered by air strikes ...

Argument

Facebooking Ourselves to Death

“There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies,” Walter Lippmann once wrote. The influential commentator, sometimes ...

Argument

A Chance for Change in the New Thailand

For over two years, the streets of Bangkok -- which had grown accustomed to frequent and massive demonstrations -- have been uncharacteristically quiet. Thailand’s raucous ...

Case Study

How Romanian People Power Took On Mining and Corruption

One doesn’t usually think of the southeast corner of Europe as a hotbed of citizen dissent and mobilization. Yet people power in the region has ...

Argument

How Social Media Helps Dictators

Many people think that social media has been a boon for grassroots social and political movements, and it’s easy to understand why. The rise of ...

Democracy Lab

Let’s Face It: The U.S. Constitution Needs a Makeover

The experts have been throwing around a lot of numbers in the wake of the U.S. presidential election. But there’s one statistic that hasn’t been ...

Argument

When Corruption Can’t Be Fixed

As President Obama prepares to leave office, his mission to stabilize and reconstruct Afghanistan is failing. Violence has surged as troops have been drawn down. ...

Argument

What Happens in Turkey Doesn’t Stay in Turkey

The detention of 11 members of parliament from an opposition political party last week marked the latest step in Turkey’s transformation into a de facto ...

Argument

It’s Time to Give Assad’s Soldiers a Ticket Out

The popular narrative of the Syrian civil war is that of an apocalyptic conflict between two sets of diehard fanatics: The Sunni jihadists on one ...

Christian Caryl

President Duterte’s Crazy Drug War Is Just the Beginning

In a better world, Leila de Lima would be enjoying the triumphant culmination of a long career in public service. Instead the 57-year-old member of ...

Argument

Another Bipartisan Tenet of U.S. Foreign Policy Bites the Dust

Freedom is falling out of fashion, and the autocrats are on the move. Ever since 2006, human rights watchdog Freedom House has recorded a drop ...

Dispatch

For Iraqi Christians, a Bittersweet Homecoming

HAMDANIYA, Iraq — Christians are finally returning to the Church of the Immaculate Conception. In the courtyard, they find piles of shell casings and mannequin torsos ...

Dispatch

Ukraine’s Women Are Kicking Ass and Taking Names

“You should have made an appointment,” the clerk says, eyeing us dubiously. But Olena Ivanchenko isn’t the kind of woman to take no for an ...

Argument

Hungary Fought For Freedom. Now It’s Content With Tyranny.

The crushing of Hungary’s anti-Soviet uprising 60 years ago this week stood as a tragic symbol of communist barbarism throughout the Cold War. Ideally, the ...

Argument

Bad History Doesn’t Make Friends

Coming to terms with the past is always a messy business. But in few countries is the debate over history as fraught -- and as ...

Argument

What Rodrigo Duterte Is Giving Up

Since he took office on June 30, Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte -- also known as “Duterte Harry” -- has earned international notoriety for a ...

Argument

The Education of Mikheil Saakashvili

Just last week, former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili was confidently predicting his imminent return to his home country. Anticipating that his old political party would ...

Argument

The Long Career of Thailand’s King Offers a Study in the Immense Challenges of Royal Rule

For 70 years, King Bhumibol Adulyadej provided a steadying hand in the rough-and-tumble world of Thai politics. Through nearly a dozen coups and 17 constitutions, ...

Argument

The Second-Most Important Vote On Nov. 8

In the past year, a decade-long but modest retreat of democracy around the globe has mutated into something much more blatant, volatile, and dangerous. The ...

Argument

Vladimir Putin Loves Civil Society (As Long As He Controls It)

At first glance, the attitude of the Putin regime towards Russian civil society seems strangely inconsistent. On the one hand, over the last few years, ...

Transitions

A Car Bomb Rattles Georgians As Election Nears

The booming of the drums, amplified by two loudspeakers, rolled over thousands of heads, as if to bolster the spirits of an army before battle. ...

Dispatch

A Kurdish Mystery Just Got Weirder

ISTANBUL -- It was a case that stirred dark memories among Turkey’s Kurds: Hursit Kulter, a 33-year-old politician working for the Kurdish Democratic Regions Party ...

Argument

Burma’s Grassroots War on Drugs

MYITKYINA, BURMA -- Perched on the west bank of the picturesque Irrawaddy River, Myitkyina looks like a typical northern Burmese town of churches and timber ...

Argument

What Ukraine Can Learn From Germany’s Cold War Divisions

Ukraine has been fortunate in its misfortune. Russian leader Vladimir Putin has annexed Crimea formally and the eastern Donbas informally, and thousands of Ukrainians have ...

Feature

Hungary Is Too Small for Viktor Orban

Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, was the first European Union leader to endorse Donald Trump for president of the United States. “I listened to [Trump], ...

Argument

Another Country Gets Tired of Hope and Change

Georgia offers a vivid example of a truly disenchanted society. Once a place of rapid change -- and one of the former Soviet Union’s most ...

Argument

Why Colombia’s Government Compromised for Peace

This was an important week in the history of peace. On Monday, in the charming colonial city of Cartagena, the Colombian government signed a peace ...

Democracy Lab

We’ve Got to Face It: Trump Is Riding a Global Trend

Hillary Clinton talks a lot about globalization and its discontents, and much of what she says about the world is intelligent and true. Her supporters ...

Argument

Does Algeria Still Have Time to Turn It Around?

Algeria is North Africa’s oil superpower, but its years of steady production haven’t brought prosperity or development. Instead, the country is facing mounting economic, social, ...

Argument

The Grim Reality Behind Tunisia’s Fairy Tale

Tunisia is the lone success story of Arab Spring -- or, at any rate, so we hear. The story goes like this: While the rest ...

Democracy Lab

Mourning the Syria That Might Have Been

Earlier this week, when the latest ceasefire in Syria’s long-running civil war took effect, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad seized the opportunity to embark on a ...

Argument

Europe’s Last Dictator Steps Into the Unknown

During last weekend’s parliamentary elections in Belarus -- a country of just under ten million people that Swedish economist Anders Aslund once described as a ...

Argument

Why Ukraine’s Desperate Struggle Gives Me Hope

If you believe -- as I do -- that democracy is humanity's best hope, these are discouraging times. China, the world's next superpower, thinks it's ...

Argument

It’s Still the Economy, Stupid

Because they are tailored to appeal to voters, all political platforms are, to some extent, “populist.” But what sets the wave of populism currently sweeping ...

Argument

Is the United States Giving Up on Supporting Democracy Abroad?

When the goal of fostering and strengthening democracy abroad became a significant element of U.S. foreign policy in the 1980s, an informal network of enthusiastic ...

Argument

Yes, the U.S. Can Fight Corruption Overseas

The crusade against corruption seems to be everywhere. In May, then-prime minister David Cameron hosted dozens of world leaders at the massive Global Anti-Corruption Summit ...

Dispatch

Ukraine’s Best-Known Reformer Succumbs to the Lure of Populism

Last Saturday, in the final week of what is usually a sedate period of summer vacation for almost everybody in Ukraine, the country’s bucolic southern ...

Argument

Here’s How Venezuela Can Move Forward

Venezuela is in critical condition, suffering simultaneously from economic catastrophe, growing social unrest, looting, violence, and rampant crime. The political opposition has long recognized the ...

Special Report

Can Tunisia Survive Its Coming of Age?

The dawn of democracy is something to root for — but the forces that pulled its neighbors back into upheaval still threaten to undo its progress.

Profile

Crisis of Governance: Local Edition

Ridha Abbassi, the mayor of the Tunisian city of Kasserine, presides over a roomy office amply endowed with comfortable leather chairs. An intricate map of ...

Profile

About Democracy Lab

Democracy Lab is Foreign Policy's home for coverage of transitions to democracy, published in partnership with the Legatum Institute. Democracy Lab also runs Transitions, a blog featuring on-the-ground coverage of transitioning countries.

Editor, Christian Caryl
Assistant Editor, Ilya Lozovsky

Learn more about Democracy Lab here.

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