Building Global Democracy

''Politics is dirty, and, if you are a woman, you may need the support of male family members, a father, brother or a husband to act as a buffer against the payoffs, the land-grabbing, extortion and underhand dealings,'' said Kishwar. Indeed India's vas

MONTRÉAL: Turkey has strong ties both with its Muslim history and with secularism, understood as not mixing religion with politics. After decades of struggling between these two identities, this strategic NATO ally and EU contender has developed a hybrid

BANGALORE, May 8 (IPS) - Even while India goes to the polls in a lumbering show of democracy, human rights activist-doctor Binayak Sen remains in prison on unproven terrorism charges.

KOLKATA, May 7 (IPS) - Mamata Bannerjee, six-time member of Parliament from West Bengal, bucks the stereotype of women political leaders in India. Neither heir to a political dynasty nor blessed with a political godfather, she has picked her way through

The pathologies of the democratic public sphere, first articulated by Plato in his attack on rhetoric, have pushed much of deliberative theory out of the mass public and into the study and design of small scale deliberative venues. The move away from the

Timor-Leste's struggle for independence has won it high international profile. Yet there is little known internationally about the role women played in the resistance movement and how independence has affected them. Has democratisation brought women great

This essay explores the conception of the individual in Dewey's democratic writings. Following Dewey's lead, I argue that it is human individuality, including our impulses, habits, and capacities, along with an appropriate environment, that represents the

The present time of slackening is a helpful moment to examine Muslim perceptions of Western religious intention. A kind of seven-year itch following 9/11 seems to have thrown up some possible resolutions of the polarity which look beyond the clearly fruit

The spectre of "Talibanisation" has taken possession of much recent political commentary on Pakistan. The attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore have become part of the same story as the imposition of "sharia law" in Swat, the bombing of securit

International engagement and domestic actors' political will are both critical if Zimbabwe's national unity government is to realize the promise of last September's Global Political Agreement, a Congressional hearing was told this week. The key priorities

In a new policy brief for the German Marshall Fund, John K. Glenn analyzes the paths of democratization in the post-Communist world of central and eastern Europe and argues that "the United States and Europe should not retreat from their support for democ

ADDIS ABABA, May 14 (IPS) - When Margaret Mensah-Williams walked down the steps after presiding over the Namibian parliament for the first time, male parliamentarians rushed to ask her how she became so good at chairing the house.

The Committee for a World Parliament (COPAM), based in Paris, has joined the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (CEUNPA).

BEIJING, May 16 (IPS) - Painstaking efforts by Chinese leadership to maintain the cloak of official silence over the crackdown of a 1989 pro-democracy movement backfired this week when Hong Kong released explosive clandestine memoirs of an ousted reformis

NIAMEY, 11 mai (IPS) - Plusieurs milliers de personnes ont manifesté dans le centre-ville de Niamey, la capitale du Niger, samedi, contre l'intention du président Mamadou Tandja de modifier les règles constitutionnelles et démocratiques en vue de briguer

DENPASAR, Indonesia, May 18 (IPS) - Indonesia's direct legislative election in April was a resounding success for women candidates. But instead of rejoicing, activists and political observers say it is unlikely to help the cause of women's rights. Titi S

President Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver a speech in Cairo in June 2009 in which he is expected to reach out to the Islamic world, part of the continuing work of repairing the ties between the United States and Muslims that were so damaged under the

MIDRAND, South Africa, May 19 (IPS) - It will remain difficult for Africa to address the effects of the global financial crisis or tackle other problems the continent faces as long as African countries try to go it alone. "The progress on the African uni

Western-supported media assistance in transition and developing countries has a long history. Building independent media, preferably through the nongovernmental sector, is seen as an important aspect of achieving modernization and democratization. This ar

The 1990s was the era of human rights awareness, democratic transitions, and growing involvement of international organizations and the nongovernmental sector in human rights education (HRE). The UN Decade for HRE from 1995-2004 was not only born out of t