As recently as a few months ago, Manuel Baldizon of the center-right Renewed Democratic Liberty party probably felt pretty good about his chances of becoming Guatemala’s 37th president. With a huge corruption scandal engulfing the leadership of the ruling party, the withdrawal from the race of his nearest rival, and a comfortable lead in the … Read more
Since Qatar won the bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup in December of 2010, the small Gulf nation has been the target of a hailstorm of criticism from abroad while also seeing tremendous excitement from residents of the region. International scrutiny of the decision to let Qatar host the tournament has focused on … Read more
Talk of a Chinese slowdown and the worrying U.S. equities market have led many to question whether the broader U.S. recovery is on the brink of a downturn. These past few months have been especially concerning, with one of China’s most notable indices, the Shanghai Composite Index, down more than a third over the course … Read more
This past September, Singaporean politicians made history by contesting the nation’s premier political authority (the People’s Action Party) in all 89 parliamentary districts. At first glance, this opposition to the country’s foremost ruling party since 1954 suggests a transition in popular opinion away from traditional authoritative constructs and towards more modern democratic ones. However, the … Read more
On June 7, 2015, Turkey held general elections in which the governing Justice and Development Party, commonly known as the AKP, lost its outright majority in Parliament for the first time in 13 years. The electoral system in Turkey allocates 550 total seats. But the country also has the world’s highest election threshold, barring from … Read more
Francis Fukuyama, in his 1989 essay “The End of History?” hypothesized that the end of the Cold War marked the “universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.” But what came after the fall of the Berlin Wall was anything but Fukuyama’s end of history. Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika ended in … Read more
In 1960, self-appointed Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro nationalized all American-owned businesses without providing compensation, increased trade with the Soviet Union, and levied taxes on all American imports. In response, the United States promptly ended diplomatic relations with the island nation and imposed a trade embargo that still stands today. It is estimated that this … Read more
In perhaps the most visible feature of participatory democracy—the electoral process—change seems afoot. The goalposts of elections—the nature of their discourse, build-up, and outcomes—appear to be shifting, no more so than in the United States and the United Kingdom. The recent popularity of outsider candidates Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn respectively in the two nations … Read more
“It was a good result for the PAP, but an excellent result for Singapore.” So spoke Lee Hsien Long, Singapore’s prime minister, upon the victory of his People’s Action Party in the recent September 2015 elections. Lee’s words are indubitably optimistic, and justifiably so—the PAP won almost 70 percent of the vote. Context is particularly … Read more
Would you vote for John Oliver? Guatemala would. In the first round of Guatemala’s recent presidential election, comedian Jimmy Morales won 24 percent of the vote. Morales’ rise symbolizes widespread opposition toward Guatemala’s current government officials. With “Ni corrupto, ni ladrón” (“Neither corrupt nor a thief”) as his campaign slogan, Morales promised to end the … Read more