Democracy & Rule of Law
Democratic Backsliding & Solutions
112 Articles
After Another Sham Election in Georgia, the Country’s Citizens Persist
Georgians will fight for their democracy, as the ruling party now becomes one of the world's many paranoid, insecure dictatorships that know their days are numbered.
The Trump Administration’s Use of State Power Against Media: Keeping Track of the Big Picture
Tracking the use of State power requires systematically identifying linkages between individual developments and broader trends. This graphic offers one method.
Assassinations in America: How Political Violence Became Personal
Americans can no longer turn to their political leadership to avert the catastrophe of political violence.
Repression as Rescue: The Authoritarian Logic of Trump’s Early Executive Orders
The rhetorical threats Trump employed during his campaign are directly echoed in the titles and content of his second-term EOs.
Trump’s Use of Consent Decrees to Dismantle Policy
The administration has turned consent decrees into a deregulatory weapon, and courts are beginning to confront the limits of that strategy.
Brazil’s Digital Sovereignty Is Under Attack: How Courts, Platforms, and Constitutional Law Are Redefining Democracy Online
At the heart of Brazil’s approach to digital constitutionalism is a legal framework that treats platform governance as essential to democracy.
The Human Costs of Systemic Corruption
When core functions of the state become warped into tools of personal enrichment or political control, ordinary people suffer. The poor and marginalized are hit hardest.
Hard to Kill: The Transnational Survival of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
The global anti-corruption regime that the United States pioneered over many decades is bigger than any one country or regime
“When the Guardrails Erode” Series
Bringing together expert analysis that traces this erosion, assesses the risks for democratic governance, and outlines pathways to rebuild or even reinvent these safeguards.
The Anti-Corruption Tracker: Mapping the Erosion of Oversight and Accountability
This Anti-Corruption Tracker focuses on the erosion or dismantling of oversight and accountability systems within the United States Executive Branch.
When Guardrails Erode: An Anti‑Corruption Series
This series aims to document how erosion is happening, what it reveals, and what it demands from those committed to rebuilding and rethinking our systems of accountability.
As Georgian Regime Intensifies Crackdown, U.S. Should Support Its People
Sanctions moving through Congress and a new, vocal U.S. ambassador could help protesting Georgian citizens restore an alliance with the West and avoid a turn to Russia, China.