Democracy faces perfect storm as the world becomes more authoritarian Many democratic governments are increasingly adopting authoritarian tactics, accentuated by the Covid-19 pandemic, while autocratic regimes are consolidating their power.
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Shane Maloney has admitted to killing 17 people, although he can’t be completely sure without digging up the bodies. My death toll is considerably higher, but I’ve been doing this for a long time now – almost 20 years.
My victims have been shot, drowned, stabbed, frozen, incinerated, run-down, squashed, speared and pushed in front of moving vehicles. I once blew up a train carriage with acetone peroxide, colloquially known as “Mother of Satan”, and I seem to be fixated with setting fire to things.
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The world is becoming more authoritarian as autocratic regimes become even more brazen in their repression. Many democratic governments are backsliding and are adopting authoritarian tactics by restricting free speech and weakening the rule of law, a trend exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. These are the key findings of the “The Global State of Democracy Report 2021 – Building Resilience in a Pandemic Era”, published on 22 November 2021 by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), an intergovernmental organization based in Stockholm.
“The Global State of Democracy report is not a wakeup call, it’s an alarm bell. Authoritarianism advances in every corner of the earth. Universal values – the pillars of civilization that protect the most vulnerable – are under threat. The EU shares many of the challenges. But we do have a unique and diverse experience of democracy…More than two-thirds of the world’s population now live in backsliding democracies or autocratic regimes…”
- The Global State of Democracy Report 2021 can be accessed here. It includes regional reports on Africa and the Middle East; the Americas; Asia and the Pacific and Europe.
1. Stephen Sondheim (RIP) teaches “Not Getting Married.” One of the all-time greats.
2. Is the Belfast region going to boom?
3. Hypotheses about why no delta-targeting vaccine.
5. More on Omicron. And from The Zvi.
