Written by: Ryan Thiele Since the Law and Justice (PiS) party took the reigns of the Polish government in 2015, the party has been on a crusade to remove “communist influence” from the country by taking over the courts. Led by President Andrzej Duda and Party Chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the party has used its majority…
Tag: Authoritarianism
Instanbul’s Groundbreaking Mayoral Election
Written by: Matthew Maurice Mayoral elections are often unexciting affairs, coupled with low turnout. With the exception of maybe New York and a couple other major US cities, most Americans would likely struggle to name any other mayor (including their own). Even the historic election of Lori Lightfoot to be Chicago’s next mayor, becoming both…
Elections in Azerbaijan: A Win for Democracy’s Favorite Dictator
Written by: Jack Urban On April 11, 2018, Ilham Aliyev was re-elected to a fourth term as President of Azerbaijan. Despite Azerbaijan’s close ties to the West, their standing as the first muslim majority secular country in the world, or their massive oil reserves, this event went largely unnoticed by the world. Moreover, in order…
Autocracy Masquerading as Democracy: The Regression of the United States and Hungary to Non-Democratic States
Written by: Aly Niehans Hungary has a storied political history. Invaded by and allied with Nazi Germany during World War II, Hungarian Nazis quickly succumbed to the invasion of Soviet troops in April of 1945, just months before the end of the war. Within the four years following World War II, the Soviets consolidated power…
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