Attention Economy


Friday, May 6, 2016

Promoting Democracy – Not an Easy Task

Stephen Walt (the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University) wonders Why Is America So Bad at Promoting Democracy in Other Countries?

The always insightful Roger Cohen observes:
“Liberalism is dead. Or at least it is on the ropes. Triumphant a quarter-century ago, when liberal democracy appeared to have prevailed definitively over the totalitarian utopias that exacted such a toll in blood, it is now under siege from without and within.
Nationalism and authoritarianism, reinforced by technology, have come together to exercise new forms of control and manipulation over human beings whose susceptibility to greed, prejudice, ignorance, domination, subservience and fear was not, after all, swept away by the fall of the Berlin Wall.”

Facing Up to the Democratic Recession by Larry Diamond

The Democratic Transition by Fabrice Murtin & Romain Wacziarg
Abstract: Over the last two centuries, many countries experienced regime transitions toward democracy. We document this democratic transition over a long time horizon. We use historical time series of income, education and democracy levels from 1870 to 2000 to explore the economic factors associated with rising levels of democracy. We find that primary schooling, and to a weaker extent per capita income levels, are strong determinants of the quality of political institutions. We find little evidence of causality running the other way, from democracy to income or education.

Why Democracies Fail: Lessons from Mali?

How democratic institutions are making dictatorships more durable

Economic development promotes democracy, but there’s a catch

Burundi

Djibouti
https://www.opendemocracy.net/joshua-neicho/opening-up-democracy-in-djibouti-great-powers-and-little-battalions

Turkey
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-eleventh-hour-for-turkish-democracy