Uncategorized

By Chiara Loda (@ChiaraLoda) This post was originally published in Presidential Power and is available here Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, seems increasingly concerned about international criticism of his country. In Aliyve’s words: “[International circles] are trying to present Azerbaijan as a totalitarian and authoritarian country where rights and freedoms are violated. This trend started the day I was…

by Shairbek Dzhuraev , PhD candidate at the University of St Andrews Uncertainty seemed the only certainty when president of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov fell critically ill on August 28, 2016. Some feared the regime succession might go awry, bringing different elite factions into open conflict. Others thought of the end of the harsh authoritarian regime.…

By Chiara Loda (@ChiaraLoda) This post was originally published in Presidential Power and is available here On 2 April 2017, a parliamentary election took place in Armenia. This was a particularly remarkable event in the political life of the country, as it was the first national vote after the approval of the constitutional reform, in December 2015 and the subsequent adoption of…

by Maurizio Totaro, PhD candidate at the Department of Conflict and Development Studies, Ghent University In early January, a few days after my arrival in Astana, I was strolling on the frozen side-walks of the city, taking advantage of the unusually warm sun mitigating the harsh wintry temperature. As I walked, a large filling station caught…

By Aytan Gahramanova, PhD student in Dublin City University   After a short experience with democracy following the restoration of independence in 1991, Azerbaijan’s civil society witnessed renewed challenges to their activism. Yet, civil society organisations continued to carry their work of human rights promotion, elections’ monitoring, advocacy, education and community building, giving way to the…

By Chiara Loda (@ChiaraLoda) This post was originally published in Presidential Power and is available here In September 2016, referring to the parliamentary elections due to be held in the spring of 2017, President Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia declared that: “I am sure that all these measures will contribute to raising public confidence in electoral process and ensure that we meet international standards for free and fair…

By Olana Levenets, PhD candidate at Tallinn University of Technology The common message from Ukraine’s politicians for last 15 years has been that more money is needed  for its health care system to function properly and cover all needs. Only in the middle of the second decade of Ukraine’s independence, its government finally officially questioned the…

By Shu Uchida, PhD student at the University of Coimbra   Saakashvili was the democratic champion in Georgia and even for the region right after the rose revolution in 2003, eradicating corruption at the level of the police force and conducting numerous reforms. However, he gained exceptional political power in Georgia as president, and he…