Mohamed Nasheed was in New York City this week promoting The Island President, a new documentary film about his beautiful archipelago nation, the Maldives, and its perilous struggle against climate change. The documentary follows …
democracy
Burma’s ‘New Era’: Hope, Humor and a Long Road Ahead
On the morning of April 1, before the sun rose high above Rangoon, Zu Zu called her brother on the phone. “I have bad news,” she said.
Zu Zu, 23, radiant and quietly rebellious, left her hometown in the Shan Hills three years …
Must-Reads from Around the World: March 27, 2012
Life After Chávez – The Economist examines splits emerging in Venezuela’s ruling United Socialist Party as the president undergoes more cancer treatment. “The fissures in the ruling party show only too clearly what is likely to …
Is Kazakhstan Experiencing Its Own ‘Arab Spring’ Moment?
An unusual thing happened over the weekend in Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan and the vast Central Asian country’s major commercial city: roughly 500 people gathered in a protest. They called for democratic change in a …
Taiwan Re-Elects President Ma, Bolstering Ties to China
Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou was re-elected Saturday, a win that will preserve the cross-strait status quo and likely lead to closer ties with China. Ma, a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), fended off …
Taiwan Goes to Vote: What’s at Stake in the Island Nation’s Election
At the headquarters of Taiwan’s opposition Democratic Progressive Party in Taipei, three women are hunched over the sink in a second-floor bathroom, scrubbing coins. With soapy fingers, they turn brackish discs to dull
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“The theater of politics makes permanent demands on us all, as dramatists, actors, and audience – on our common sense, our moderation, our responsibility, our good taste, and our conscience.”
Armed Camps: Where Militaries Meddle with Democracy
The Egyptian military’s latest attempt to circumvent the results of national elections has stoked scrutiny of the top brass in Cairo. Global Spin looks at countries where the army is currently meddling in politics.
From Wall Street to Tahrir Square, a New Distrust of Leaders’ Promises
Outrage at a status quo that serves powerful elites at the expense of the majority has, over the past year, drawn millions of (mostly) young people onto the streets of Madrid, Athens, Santiago, New Delhi, Tripoli, Cairo and now even New York City. But their anger is not confined to the status quo; it is also directed at the …
Old Man vs Rude Kid: South Africa’s (Poor) Substitute Democracy
If ever proof was needed that competition – and its political manifestation, democracy – is as humanly innate as Darwin claimed, it is in the constant, sometimes violent challenges that confront one-party states. The Arab world is experiencing the ultimate expression of the universal opposition to a life without choice and the desire …
Turkey Inspires Islamists and Liberals, But in Very Different Ways
Everybody wants a piece of Turkey. On my sweep through Egypt and Tunisia, virtually everyone I met invoked the nation that bestrides the Bosphorus as one they’d like their own country to emulate. The Turks had just had a general election, and Arabs had watched it unfold on Al Jazeera and other TV channels. The vote was clean, mostly …
Dissent in the Muslim Brotherhood: How Egypt’s ‘Big Tent’ Party Isn’t Big Enough
Most Western observers see the Muslim Brotherhood as a homogenous group of hard-line Islamists, dedicated to overthrowing the secular Egyptian state and imposing a severe interpretation of Shari’a law on its people. In reality, the Islamist group has long been something of a “big tent,” gathering within it representatives of …
Turkey’s Vote Is a Win for Democracy
Pelin Turgut examines for TIME the new political environment in the wake of Turkey’s elections on Sunday. Critics decry Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s perceived authoritarian leadership style, but his ruling Justice and Development Party, a pro-business and moderately Islamist party, won Sunday’s elections with 50% of the vote, …