Democracy and Discontents

       During the rise of the far-right populist League Party, Matteo Salvini has risen to a superstar level of fame in Italy’s political realm.   The League Party has gained a massive influx of supporters during the recent wave of immigration to Italy.  In 2013, League only received 4% of the total vote, but in the

Pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong celebrated the six-month milestone of mass demonstrations with the largest protests in weeks. The demonstration, organized by the Civil Human Rights Front, included an estimated 800,000 people (BBC: 2019). This rally, unlike many in recent months, remained largely peaceful. 11 people were arrested prior to the event, one with a

On Saturday, November 16, Sri Lanka held its presidential election, the third since the end of its Civil War in 2009. This election centers around some of the most contentious issues in Sri Lanka today, most importantly security and minority rights. Ethnic tensions and the aftermath of this year’s Easter Sunday bombings weigh heavily on

On Monday, Boris Johnson’s bid to conduct the UK general elections early failed to be passed by Parliament for several reasons, but the situation is not totally resolved at this point. Johnson wanted to conduct these elections while he is in power of the Conservative party, but because of the rules of the UK’s government,

“As I stroll through the city of Barcelona, I see the flashes of yellow all around- unaware of the controversial politics that this yellow ribbon proclaims.” On 14 October 2019, the conviction of nine pro-independence leaders came from the Spanish, reigniting worldwide protest supporting the Catalan Independence movement. This sentencing, seen by some as “an

Lebanon’s status as a reliable, stable nation in the tumultuous Middle East has been upended in the last several days as the country has been consumed with protest. Protests began last week, catalyzed by the introduction of a series of new taxes, including ones on mobile messaging apps like WhatsApp (Tawil: 2019). As is often

On December 17th, 2010, the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi began a revolution, sparking nationwide protests in just days- protests that would later develop into the Arab Springs. Tunisia was in disarray, suffering from vast unemployment and a general dire economic state. President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, after twenty-one days of intense protests, was ousted. While

Israel held its second election of 2019 last week, and the results provided a week-long debate about the future of the Israeli government.  This election was essentially to decide which party leader would be tasked with building a government over the next 6 weeks, and President Rivlin had until this afternoon (September 25th) to choose

In the most recent development of the seemingly never-ending Brexit saga, the courts dealt Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his supporters a major setback in their attempt to prorogue Parliament in the leadup to the Brexit deadline. Like all else in the world of Brexit-era British politics, this case exists in the center of a