democracy – News Stories About democracy - Page 4

ANALYSIS

Jun 29, 2009 2:47 AM CDT

Honduran Coup an Opportunity for Obama

President should demonstrate US commitment to democracy: expert

(Newser) - The Honduran military coup overthrowing President Manuel Zelaya offers the Obama administration a chance to rehabilitate the battered reputation of the US in Latin America, Reuters reports. "This is a golden opportunity to make a clear break with the past and show that he is unequivocally siding with democracy”...

Dalai Lama to Tibet:
You Need 2 of Me

Jun 22, 2009 4:55 AM CDT

Dalai Lama to Tibet: You Need 2 of Me

(Newser) - The Dalai Lama has told Tibetans his successor should not bear the burden of being both spiritual and political leader to their community, the Independent reports. "When we put the whole responsibility in the person of the Dalai Lama, it is dangerous," he said in a video address...

Mexicans Eager to Cast Votes
for No One

Jun 18, 2009 2:51 PM CDT

Mexicans Eager to Cast Votes for No One

Blank ballot campaign gains popularity as democracy loses it

(Newser) - Plenty of politicians are battling for votes ahead of Mexico’s July 5 congressional election, but the campaign getting the most buzz isn’t for a candidate—it’s for no candidate. The vote en blanco movement is urging disillusioned Mexicans to turn in their ballots with a giant “...

150K Join Tiananmen
Vigil in Hong Kong

Jun 4, 2009 2:19 PM CDT

150K Join Tiananmen Vigil in Hong Kong

(Newser) - An annual vigil marking the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre brought a record 150,000 people to a park in Hong Kong, the only place in China to mark the event, reports the BBC. “It is something to remember not only for our generation but for the...

What Happened to the
Tiananmen Spirit?

OPINION

Jun 4, 2009 8:52 AM CDT

What Happened to the Tiananmen Spirit?

(Newser) - Twenty years ago today, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times was in Tiananmen Square, sweating in fear and watching as "'People’s China' opened fire on its people." The soldiers had shot at ambulances, too, so no one was helping the wounded—except the rickshaw drivers. One...

Chan Says
'Chinese
Need to Be
Controlled'

Apr 18, 2009 5:54 PM CDT

Chan Says 'Chinese Need to Be Controlled'

Action star rethinking his stance on democracy

(Newser) - Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan may be picking a fight with a new foe—democracy, the AP reports. Speaking at a business summit today in China, the action star said he wasn't "sure if it's good to have freedom or not. I'm gradually beginning to feel that we...

Bush Gang Will Reunite
to Reflect on Legacy

Apr 10, 2009 4:46 PM CDT

Bush Gang Will Reunite to Reflect on Legacy

(Newser) - The George W. Bush administration is planning a reunion in honor of the former president’s nascent policy institute, the New York Times reports. Condoleezza Rice, Karen Hughes, speechwriter Michael Gerson, and White House counsel Dan Bartlett will meet the former president next week in Dallas for dinner and a...

Online Town Hall a Positive Step for Democracy

analysis

Mar 26, 2009 4:41 PM CDT

Online Town Hall a Positive Step for Democracy

Format shows administration is serious about opening government

(Newser) - Sure, President Obama’s online town hall meeting today ended up being mostly like a normal press conference, writes Jose Antonio Vargas for the Washington Post, with Obama answering mostly “predictable” questions with “tried-and-tested policy responses.” What makes the event important is that the president was asked...

DC Shrugs Off 'Miracle' in Iraq

OPINION

Feb 13, 2009 8:41 AM CST

DC Shrugs Off 'Miracle' in Iraq

Obama must support healthy Iraq, even if he opposed war

(Newser) - The US barely noticed the recent "small miracle" in the Middle East, writes Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post: Iraq's peaceful elections. The nation "moved away from religious sectarianism toward more secular nationalism”—good news for the US, bad for Iran. Even though our policies made it...

Democratic Petition Gains Support in China

Jan 29, 2009 11:42 AM CST

Democratic Petition Gains Support in China

Charter 08 first sustained human-rights campaign since '89 Tiananmen protests

(Newser) - An online human-rights manifesto has been gaining support in China, the Washington Post reports. Charter 08 has gathered 8,100 signatures, from ordinary citizens as well as known advocates for democracy. The document, modeled after a document put together by intellectuals in the former Czechoslovakia, demands China’s constitution be...

This Time, Iraq Gets
Politics With Its Elections

Jan 22, 2009 10:55 AM CST

This Time, Iraq Gets Politics With Its Elections

Stability gives candidates chance to compete more in Western democratic style

(Newser) - If Iraq’s tumultuous 2005 elections were a trial run at democracy, the current provincial race has main-event flavor, the Washington Post reports. Greater stability has allowed town-hall gatherings, where voters grill some 14,000 candidates running for 440 seats on everything from housing to militarization. And campaign posters, T-shirts...

Former Iraqi PM:
Bush an 'Utter Failure'

Jan 3, 2009 4:20 PM CST

Former Iraqi PM: Bush an 'Utter Failure'

Allawi had been appointed by US after Saddam's fall

(Newser) - The Iraqi prime minister installed by Washington after the fall of Saddam Hussein has blasted President Bush’s policies as an “utter failure,” Reuters reports. In an interview with an Arab newspaper, Iyad Allawi said Bush’s “insistence on names like ‘democracy’ and ‘open elections,...

Cuba Embargo
Has Backfired:
Time to End It

OPINION

Jan 2, 2009 1:52 PM CST

Cuba Embargo Has Backfired: Time to End It

(Newser) - The Cuban embargo has failed to encourage democracy there, and the president-elect should do something about it, writes Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post. It's time to “bring five decades of counterproductive American policy toward Cuba to a definitive end.” While engagement with other Communist regimes has worked...

Opposition Leader Claims Victory in Ghana Runoff

Dec 30, 2008 7:45 AM CST

Opposition Leader Claims Victory in Ghana Runoff

But ruling party says results still too close to call

(Newser) - John Atta Mills has proclaimed himself the winner of Ghana’s presidential runoff election, the BBC reports, but the ruling NPP party says the results are still too close to call. Tensions are running high over the poll—earlier today police were forced to fire warning shots at a huge...

Ghana Election
Goes to a Runoff

Dec 10, 2008 2:28 PM CST

Ghana Election Goes to a Runoff

Neither of top two candidates secured requisite 50%; next vote is Dec. 28

(Newser) - Voters in Ghana will have to go to the polls again to decide their next president, as neither major candidate received the 50% in Sunday’s election. Governing-party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo scored 49.13%, with key opposition leader John Atta Mills pulling in a close 47.92%. The next vote...

One Man's Vote:
Right Makes Rite

COMMENTARY

Nov 4, 2008 3:48 PM CST

One Man's Vote: Right Makes Rite

Scribe ruminates on participating in the democratic process, New York style

(Newser) - Roger Angell has an almost religious view of the act of voting, and he shares it in the New Yorker. His experience might seem odd to voters outside New York, where touch screens are more prevalent, but the curtain, of “material and stiffness unknown elsewhere,” gives Angell a...

If You Don't Know
Who This Is,
Don't Vote

OPINION

Oct 31, 2008 4:01 PM CDT

If You Don't Know Who This Is, Don't Vote

Uninformed citizens should stay home, unpopular as the sentiment might be

(Newser) - Countless actors, musicians and other celebrities have volunteered their time encouraging young people to vote. But should they? ABC News anchor John Stossel quizzed voters on basic political knowledge at a registration-drive concert and in the nation’s capital. A shockingly high number of uninformed answers led Stossel to the...

Former Prisoner Ousts Maldives' Brutal President

Oct 29, 2008 9:42 AM CDT

Former Prisoner Ousts Maldives' Brutal President

Torture victim wins Indian Ocean islands' first democratic vote

(Newser) - A former political prisoner won a decisive victory yesterday in the Maldives' first democratic election, the Telegraph reports, ousting Asia's longest-serving leader. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who came to power in 1978, conceded defeat to former journalist Mohamed Nasheed—a man he jailed 13 times and who walks with a limp...

Wave Goodbye
to Reaganism

ANALYSIS

Oct 5, 2008 8:00 PM CDT

Wave Goodbye to Reaganism

Wall St. collapse shows old policies no longer work for modern US

(Newser) - Reaganism—the graying policy of low taxes, light regulation, small government, and “cowboy capitalism”—is over. Worse, Francis Fukuyama writes in Newsweek, it, along with Washington’s ill-advised foreign policy, is tarnishing the American brand. “Restoring our good name and reviving the appeal of our brand is...

Sectarian Arrests Threaten
Iraq Security

Sep 23, 2008 1:21 PM CDT

Sectarian Arrests Threaten Iraq Security

Sunnis fear al-Qaeda resurgence as Shiite authorities detain Council leaders

(Newser) - Sunnis of the Awakening Council, which helped the US fight al-Qaeda in Iraq, are in hiding to avoid arrest by the Shia-led government, USA Today reports. Such political harassment could allow al-Qaeda to regain footing in volatile Diyala province and elsewhere, US officials say. Iraqi government members insist their actions...