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Glimpses of Democracy [1]
['Peter Baker']
Date: 2022-12-09
Demonstrators are in the streets in Iran and China to protest repressive governments. Ukrainians are defending their democracy, flawed as it is, against Russian invaders. Elections in Africa and Asia resulted in changes in the ruling powers that were accepted without violence.
For years, democracy and freedom have been in retreat around the globe, and — in many minds — even here in the United States, where just last week a former president proposed the “termination” of some rules in the Constitution. But events in far-flung corners of the globe have produced glimmers of hope that suggest that the direction of democracy is not simply one way.
Michael J. Abramowitz is the president of Freedom House, a nonprofit organization founded in 1941 under the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie to promote democracy and liberty around the world. After a long career at The Washington Post, where we worked together, Abramowitz has spent nearly six years trying to reverse the trend of recent years and, for the first time in a while, sees reasons for optimism.
We talked about China, Iran and the broader swings this week:
Baker: You wrote last week that recent developments “point to an eventual reversal of the dismal trends” of democratic reverses of recent years. Is this a moment of optimism, or are we getting too excited?
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/09/briefing/dissent-democracy-freedom-house.html
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