Articles for author: Samuel Issacharoff

Standing in the Face of Illiberal Elections

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Venezuela held local and parliamentary elections on May 25th which Maduro’s allies won with an overwhelming majority. Even though Maduro had severely tilted the playing field in his favor, the regime did not have to alter the results from what was evident in the exit polls. This was partly because an important part of the opposition called for a boycott of the elections. We argue that for a beleaguered opposition, the question whether to boycott an election should reflect both pragmatic and strategic considerations of the prospects for democratic resistance.

18. Juni 2025

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Trump’s Trials for Democracy

It is hard to imagine a stable democracy having to confront the legal challenges presented by Donald Trump’s bid for reelection.  Courts have found him to be responsible for sexual assault, defamation and fraud, all in relatively quick succession. Taken together with repeated acts of demagogy and cruelty, the various legal proceedings reinforce the sense that Trump simply does not belong within the bounds of legitimate democratic contestation. But the charges against him thus far are civil claims that have no formal bearing on his bid for office. Nor do they seem to affect public opinion as the polarized electoral environment has little intermediate play that might be swayed by scandal, legal condemnation, or even the sense that enough is enough.

19. Februar 2024

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Safeguarding Democratic Institutions

A discussion of courts and populism begs for definitional boundaries.  While courts are generally institutionally confined, the same cannot be said for populism, a political moniker that risks confounding everything from the majoritarian core of democracy to the demagogic claims of tyrants in the making. As difficult as precise definition might be, it is clear that there is a shift in democratic politics.  The post-WW II political parties of Western Europe are in serious disrepair and the political tones in the Netherlands, France, Italy, Denmark, and other nations, are being defined by a politics of anger surging on the left ... continue reading

29. April 2017