Read all posts from ‘Democracy on life support’

No, you did not misread the headline. Stereotyping and prejudice against the politically ambitious Islamists within Arab countries creates friction among societies looking to move ahead. Representation is reality. People live a world of their own construct; their environment is mediated by images and representations of ‘the other’ that dictate […]

Transition takes time, and each country proceeds along its own path at its own pace. The current situation in Hungary or Romania is comparable to similar situations in years past in other transition countries in Central Europe. These countries need is simply more time for their young democracies and market economies to become more successful.

  A newspaper was confiscated, its chief editor on trial at the moment, another TV channel suspended, two other media outlets being judicially pursued for “defaming the president”, and regular columnists known to be critical of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood allege they have been banned from writing. The much-respected Committee to […]

DOs and DON’Ts. We become familiar with their meaning in childhood. “Do this”, “don’t do that”. It’s a world made up of permitted and forbidden things and it’s usually others that impose the rules on us. If this is so, where is our free will? And if this is what […]

Democracy in Hungary: Why Outsiders Should Care Alexey Sidorenko, a Future Challenges blogger based, has been observing the rollback in democracy in Hungary under Fidesz. Looking from the outside in, he sees it as one example of a broader rollback in democracy in Eastern Europe. Follow Alexey @sidorenko_intl. This article […]