Our curated library is packed full of knowledge, know-how and best practices in the fields of democracy and culture.
Read the latest on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and other critical world events in our library of democratic content. Gathered from trusted international sources, the curated library brings you a rich resource of articles, opinion pieces and more on democracy and culture to keep you updated.
Take a look at curated library below and search by keyword (i.e. Ukraine or authoritarianism) or format (i.e. article or report) and find a tailored list of resources on the topics you're most interested in.
Worth the Sacrifice? Illiberal and Authoritarian Practices during Covid-19
"Excessive use of emergency powers and limitations of media freedoms have raised concerns that Covid-19 is infecting democracy itself. This paper proposes a novel conceptualization of which government responses to Covid-19 qualify as a violation of democratic standards and measure such violations" (Maerz et al., 2020).
“Video Unavailable” Social Media Platforms Remove Evidence of War Crimes
This report epxlores how "Social Media Platforms Remove Evidence of War Crimes" (HRW 2020).
Stopping Killer Robots Country Positions on Banning Fully Autonomous Weapons and Retaining Human Control.
"This report shows how 97 countries have responded to the challenge of "Killer Robots" and elaborated their views on lethal autonomous weapons systems since the matter was first discussed at the Human Rights Council in 2013.[5] It surveys where these countries stand on calls to ban fully autonomous weapons and retain meaningful human control over the use of force." (Human Rights Watch, 2020)
Twilight of the Liberal Right
“Liberal democracy per se was never the animating passion of the trans-Atlantic right — anti-Communism was. When the threat of Communist expansion disappeared, so did most of the right’s commitment to a set of values that, it’s now evident, were purely instrumental” (Michelle Goldberg, 2020).
Under a new national-security law, Hong Kong is already a changed city
“Hong kongers had long worried that the Communist Party would transform the territory by stealth into just another Chinese city. In the past few days, armed with a new national-security law which it imposed on Hong Kong on June 30th, it has been doing so brazenly...Hong Kong is changing fast” (The Economist, 2020).
How China Scammed Hong Kong
“After many years of rejecting the people of Hong Kong’s persistent demands for genuine universal suffrage and other rights, China...chose the eve of July 1... to pass a draconian national security law that will forever harm Hong Kong’s political freedoms and hobble its economic relations with the rest of the world” (Yi-Zheng Lian, 2020).
The Philippines Shows How Democracy Dies
“A court ruling against the Philippine journalist Maria Ressa illustrates the erosion of democratic norms, the corruption of institutions, and the compromises of decision makers” (Sheila Coronel, 2020).
Shifts in Support for Authoritarianism and Democracy in the Western Balkans
"The countries of the Western Balkans have experienced more than a decade of democratic backsliding. Analysis of survey results revealed that these trends were accompanied also by substantial changes in citizens’ political attitudes. The support for a strong political leader has noticeably increased, while support for democracy has suffered a substantial decline" (Lavrič and Bieber, 2020).
Reopening the World: How the Pandemic is Reinforcing Authoritarianism
This report looks at the impact of Covid in authoritarianism and democracy, finding that “during—and after—the pandemic, governments are likely to use long, protracted crises to undermine domestic opposition and curtail civil liberties” and determining that Covid-19 is reopening conflict between the use of democracy and authoritarianism (Hamid 2020).
Naming the Disappeared, Raising the Dead
“The silencing of victims of political violence — the reduction of those who have suffered to lamentation and weeping — demonstrates its worst consequence: its paralyzing power...art matters because it articulates and materializes painful experiences into images that are capable of breaking that hold” (Doris Salcedo, 2020).
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