since the beginning of the 20th century, —— a huge problem to do western democracy since the beginningry, it seems that as is not. however people say they are inspired by isil have beenin say they are inspired by isil have been in syria and iraq has undergone a great deal of retreat because of the efforts to drive isil out. that's right and if i read this headline and two or three years ago, i would have thought this was surprising. eight or nine years ago when barack 0bama was talking about normalising the relationship with russia, people in salisbury who rememberthe russia, people in salisbury who remember the instance with sergey not that long ago, and more broadly not that long ago, and more broadly not in the context of misinformation, and their alleged attempts to get involved in elections around the world, i think a lot of people will look at this and say, yes, the army is there. stay with the daily telegraph. tenure cap vegan, and you could get in trouble if you try to take me out of your cat's diet. i really hate cats, and i'm absolutely fine on this. it is quite interesting,

way of really designing the world around you there's a lot of talk at the moment about western democracies being under pressure what would you see as the greatest challenge right now we do see that human rights democracy the rule of law is under pressure within europe but also throughout the world and women's rights play a particular role there because we see that in every country where you have this this shift backwards in well yeah fundamental rights it's always against women that it is that it is directed to so you have the independent justice that is under pressure the free press culture often and it's always against women's rights because a lot of these old men sorry to say feel threatened by strong women and to have strong women in politics usually means that that society is more open to to any sort of human beings so that everyone has the possibility to become what he or she wants to be and it's about i think you very much. lewis hamilton has won the brazilian grand prix and clinched the formula one constructors' championship for his mercedes teen the race had slipped out of hamilto

but why are we unable to what every other western democracy does? are we not as good as they are? of course we are. are people not as worthy as theirs? i think they are. if every other country can do it, we can do it. >> moving forward in 2020, it seems to me, amongst the democratic set in 2020, there really are -- there are significant differences between sort of where the progressives are, sort of the ideas that you just outlined -- medicare-for-all -- and some of the more mainstream, establishment, neo-liberal candidates. one of the most glaring items i see is on citizens united and the role of money in politics. perhaps if there is a blue wave, credit will go to the billionaires like mike bloomberg, who sent $125 million to help elect a blue wave. tom steyer, who spent tens of millions of dollars this election cycle. george soros, hundreds of millions over the course of the cycle -- of many cycles of politics. so -- >> well, let's talk about all the money. let's be clear -- the amount of money being spent on the other side, i think, dwarfs what they're spending, but go ahead.

going through so it's really important to stick to those western morals and western standards western democracy standards to make sure that. the human rights are protected and we've seen domestically some opposition from the u.s. congress they said that there will be consequences some of the lawmakers there we've also had turkey attacks trump stance that you know certain diplomats have called that comic in fact they want to take this murder case to the united nations without the u.s. backing how difficult. it would be difficult but at the same time turkey is in a very tricky position here so turkey is trying to also keep a good relationship with us there are many reasons for this there's a comic ties there's you know the the war in syria but also turkey still wants to extradite good man who believes is behind the military coup so by pushing for or trying to resolve this on a more internet international level turkey might be putting its relations with the u.s. an even more difficult situation thank you so much for putting it into context for us that us and our chief foreign policy editor we appr

it's about 80% funded bid western democracies.h like the u.n., the western democracies prop this organization up. they can filter out this law enforcement information and bring justice around the world. if that -- if those countries don't want to participate and share, they're not going to want to fund. this is the same dilemma we're having with the nouszunited nations and global systems. >> haven't you watched this with putin. wasn't putin's goal tear nato apart, have the nato allies tear themselves up from the inside. isn't this like a ballgame for putin? >> this is the destruction of liberal democracies and all their unions around the world. intersuper bowl a small portion of that. if you look, whether it's nato, the european union, the united nations, interpol, all of these unions if they can be dissolved, discredited or weakened as institutions is what we're looking at in the post trump world. we saw with the khashoggi murder and the president's statements there. >> wow. >> it's the breakdown of trust. we've seen intelligence

is a consideration they can be exchange of opinion it can be democracy i'm not talking about western democracy or eastern democracy or specific democracy a book the ability of the people to decide of their own future that can only be done. before hate considerations or cure and that it is real so you just mentioned earlier in the into that peril the promise in official diplomacy it's pyro because they go without crossing pass so that means that you're not part of the system right official system there that the stablish meanwhile when you do your job as a diplomat and a lot of your success stories in the african period they were tied to the hall they were tied to shock seen you kind of are in the system or are you completely not part of the system. after certain moments. it's time for the system to take over. that's for sure i am as i said earlier i am not here to make peace i am here to facilitate peace who is going to make peace izzie a situation because you need twenty agreement it's one which i am not thinkable to to take so yes at a certain moment there is let's say if. some people accept

it's about 80% funded by western democracies.le idea was western democracies, much like the u.n., propped this association up up so that all of these participants, some of the weaker countries in terming of law enforcement will join in and they can filter out information and help bring justice around the world. if those countries don't want to participate and share, they're not going to want to fund. it's the same dilemma we're having with the united nations, if there is not trust in the system, it will eventually decay. if it can't be effective, it won't be funded. >> but haven't you watched this with putin? wasn't putin's goal tear nato apart. have the nato allies tear themselves apart from the inside like you're watching us and the uk. isn't this part of the ball game for putin? >> yes, this is the destruction of liberal democracies and all their unions around the world. interpol is one small portion of that. if you look whether it's nato, the european union, the united nations, interpol, all of these unions, in they can dedis

country in the west who has a permanent conflict with its region a permanent conflict with the western democracy and a permanent conflict when we've been in a situation like this that the political system fails people outside of the political system the off broadway of politics becomes more extreme an activist and tried to force the system. so all of the sudden every idiot at the top of the here thanks a flag. stick it down and all of the sudden that's the no border of the country so you do not have a governmental top down strategy you have huge kids bottom up tactics and documentation of all of the tactics becomes of fortunately the national strategy so that insignificant in numbers the insignificant ideologically the insignificant even as a crime gang that a very significant by dictating the government a defacto policy which is rolled. under the many. commands and sanctions does not come on home up i mean this is something. it's not. going to do in the commission again look at what took who have only. thinking to come in with anything just. insane one thing could. see the next to me had. an ab

way of really designing the world around you there's a lot of talk at the moment about western democracies being under pressure what would you see as the greatest challenge right now we do see that human rights democracy the rule of law is under pressure within europe but also throughout the world and women's rights play a particular role there because we see that in every country where you have this this shift backwards in well yeah fundamental rights it's always against women that it is that it is directed to so you have the independent. it is that is under pressure the free press culture often and it's always against women's rights because a lot of these old men sorry to say feel threatened by strong women and to have strong women in politics usually means that that society is more open to to any sort of human beings so that everyone has the possibility to become what he or she wants to be and it's about i thinking. lewis hamilton has won the brazilian grand prix and clinched the formula one constructors' championship for his mercedes team the race had slipped out of hamilton's control

going through so it's really important to stick to those western morals and western standards western democracy standards to make sure that. the human rights are protected and we've seen domestically some opposition from the u.s. congress they said that there will be consequences some of the lawmakers there we've also had turkey attacks trump stance that you know certain diplomats have called it comic in fact they want to take this murder case to the united nations without the u.s. backing how difficult. it would be difficult but at the same time turkey is in a very tricky position here so turkey is trying to also keep a good relationship with the u.s. there are many reasons for this there's a comic ties there's you know the war in syria but also turkey still wants to extradite good man who believes is behind the military coup so by pushing for or trying to resolve this on a more internal international level turkey might be putting its relations with the u.s. in even more difficult situation thank you so much for putting it into context for us at us at our chief foreign policy editor we appreci

democracy and post-communist europe. political scientists and academics discuss the rise of populism in hungary and poland, the motives behind russian interference in the 2016 election and the future of western liberalism. the national endowment for democracy is the host of this event. >> good afternoon, everyone. i'm the founding co-editor of the "journal of democracy" and co-chair of the research council of the national endowment for democracy international forum for democratic study. i'm very pleased to welcome all of you to thavis afternoon's discussion. both our offices here and in washington, and those of you who are viewing us on c-span. the international forum for democratic studies, in addition to publishing the "journal of democracy" and hosting the reagan fellowship program, conducts research and organizes conferences and meetings on a wide variety of subjects related to democracy. its recent focus has been on the impact of authoritarian influence within democracy on transnational democracies and protecting the democratic [ inaudible ] today. if you are interested in learning more about the work of the international forum, i invite you to visit our website at www.ned.org/ideas, wh

twenty twenty one angela merkel is the longest serving leader of any western democracy after donald trump's election. some of the anglo saxon press dubbed her the leader of the free world how she just turned herself into a lame duck and if so what would be the implications for germany for europe and for the world. i think that's a very interesting question i don't think we can really answer that and so we see how the power struggle within the party. of resolves itself -- i think for the free work or four in the world. having a week leader in germany at the chancellor is probably probably not a good thing i think that's probably. one of the things that what we're going to see if the power struggle within europe then maybe france has been waiting for an answer for so long so. i'm very interested to see what will happen which that party behind her. in fact and undress -- europe had to look to her for leadership on the sovereign debt crisis after russia's incursions into ukraine also in dealing with migration. but the fact is since this new government took power it basically has looked asleep a

by the social media company have damaged public trust in data protection in the media and in western democracies because if russia were creators it was pulling down a huge amount of data from the. the what was that report was that this kept as filthy seems to be the case is kept within the family and not talked about on the specific question of whether or not we believe. based on all subsequent investigations that there was activity by russians at that time i will come back to you we've never seen anything quite like facebook where while we were playing on our phones and apps our democratic institutions our form of civil conversation seemed to be up ended by frat boy billionaires from california so mr zucker birds decision not to appear here at westminster to me speaks volumes so our intent is to be that to answer the question is are you going to get out of. some appearances which does a good but has made himself available but not for every appearance of apologies for the. obviously angry lawmakers their new documents have emerged indicating that facebook may have known as early as two thousand

participation in a democracy why is it that we still voting on tuesdays and the rest of the western democracies vote on the weekend make it easier for the working class people to be able to vote why can't we have an automatic registration to vote across the board why the republicans so insistent on limiting the ways in which people can vote that is the real problem to rodney's point if the democrats were to be able to retake the house do you think that there will be efforts made at that legislation perhaps to try to counter some of the gerrymandering efforts that have been going on for decades now well i think there are sort of a couple different types of problems i mean we do have a reality that our constitution does put much of that redistricting effort. and in fact all of it at the state level the civil rights and voting rights act ensured that the states had to do some things in more appropriate ways we had legal cases that required that each house district have the same number of people in it but the bigger problem isn't just sort of the gerrymandering because in fact our senate is not ger

fucking her and uncle michael is the longest serving leader of any western democracy after donald trump election some of the anglo-saxon press dubbed her the leader of the free world how she just turned herself into a lame duck and if so what would be the implications for germany for europe and for the world. i think that's a very interesting question i don't think we can really answer that until we see how the power struggle within the party resolves itself i think for the free world or for the world having a weak leader in germany at the chancellor is probably probably not a good thing i think that's probably one of the things what we're going to see a power struggle within europe and maybe france has been waiting for an answer for so long so i'm very interested to see what will happen when she doesn't have that party behind her in fact. europe had to look to her for leadership on the sovereign debt crisis after russia's incursions into ukraine also in dealing with migration but the fact is since this new government took power it basically has looked asleep at the wheel many people in

official about what vladimir putin was up to about a plan russian intelligence had to destabilize western democracies including the united states, cyber attacks, disinformation, propaganda. all of that being communicated, the source telling the us government you don't understand what is going on, there is something very big, very major being planned. all of this was being communicated to washington, senior government officials who frankly really weren't paying a sufficient attention. it was viewed through the lens of the ukraine issue. vladimir putin, in crimea . >> he had annexed crimea into the ukraine and that was the crisis people working on rush-hour policy were dealing with and not thinking in the larger terms of what they were told the russians were up to and then even more striking is what the russians were planning was hiding in plain sight the internet research agency that troll farm in st. petersburg the army of trolls setting up fake accounts to manipulate public opinion around the world. from inside that troll farm to go to a russian reporter to say you will not believe what is going on

soviet union was near us political scientists francis fukuyama argued that the success of western liberal democracy suggested that humanity had arrived at the close of a great ideological struggle but nearly thirty years later democracy is under assault across the globe with the rise of authoritarian liberal and nationalist governments in his new book identity the demand for dignity in the politics of resentment francis fukuyama criticizes what he says is a traditional left right spectrum of politics giving way to one defined by identity francis fukuyama thanks for joining me up front in your new book identity you argue that so-called identity politics is one of the chief threats to liberal democracies today how do you define identity politics and how is what you all saying any different to what conservatives have been complaining about for years well identity is based on this feeling that i have this inner self that's not being adequately recognized and what i want more than resources are actually recognition and respect and that's what drives groups to enter into politics because they feel as mem

this is the problem about the western democracies, not about simply what is happening in central andtern europe. so this is why we focus very much on the imitation, and i am going to give you just the basic arguments about russia and central europe. we have also a chapter on the u.s. i'm not going to touch on it first because stephen holmes was, as you can imagine, the person who contributed much of this chapter. nevertheless, i'm a brave bulgarian to give a talk on the united states -- in the united states on the eve of the midterm election. my courage cannot go as far. [laughter] but what is interesting with central europe, and saying this because you should understand for people like me, all the things that happened is also personal story. we have been on the same soros fellowship in 1990. and we have been in good personal relations for a long time. from this point of view, it's not that you're talking about something that happened somewhere. p in a certain way this is normally a certain type of transformation that is happening in front of our eyes, and in a way we have been part

this is the problem about the western democracies, not about complete what's happening in central and eastern europe but this is why it was very much on the imitation and i'm going to give you just the basic arguments about russia and central europe and i'm going to touch on that first because even all was the person who contributed much more to this chapter. nevertheless, i'm a brave bulgarian to give a talk on the united states on the eve of the midterm elections. my courage cannot go as far. but what is interesting with central europe and i'm saying this because you should understand, for people like me, all these things that happened are also personal stories. we've been on the same soros fellowship in 1999. and we we had good personal relationships for a long time so from point of view it's not that you're talking about something that happened somewhere, in a certain way this is normally a certain type of imitation and transformation that is happening in front of our eyes and in a way we have become part of it so for me it's important not only to say this is wrong but to try to u

seven that became g eight if you remember and then it became g seven again yes when western democracies basically froze and kicked out russia because they thought it wasn't acting liberally or legitimately enough to be a member of that very exclusive club. but the g. twenty that came on the back of the you know global economic crisis was born out of necessity and hence no one really could put condition whether president xi was democratic enough or liberal enough or prism buton was liberal enough and so on so forth so everyone comes out of necessity and everyone understands the differences among them and the main difference you could say is the one between the liberals and the in liberals the democrats and the non democrats and that is the way you the way things are going you know most of them are capitalist economies whether it's centralized capitalism or private capitalism and hence the difference today is between the rising india rising china rising brazil and they've already risen prosperous northern west and countries that are more liberal and signs of the question for so many of us

hearing and there's serious discussion are going on in united nations around the demand all the western democracies and right minded . people in the united nations just stand up for china just so demand them to and this concentration camp which is the on the acceptable practice in twenty first century how do you accept how do you expect china will receive that they don't seem to as you said from the thing it has to be within the parameters of china's own rules you know to china with the chinese flavor of international rule china has a buy that all the relationship with all the countries around the world and that you have a trade you have a diplomatic relationship on the social diplo all kind of political relationship so that china's all noble too and if china wants to be a respected member of global community used to help to play with the rules set up by global communities mehmet thank you very much the march is kind of just moving down the bank a little bit of form up there are other contingencies from taiwan and vietnam here as well with their own human rights concerns will have more for you duri

this is the problem about western democracies, not about what is happening in central europe, this is why we focus on this and i will keep the basic arguments we have also checked on the u.s. but i won't touch on it because he was the person that contributed much more to the chapter. but what is interesting with central europe, i'm saying this because you should understand, for people like me all these things that happen are personal stories. we then -- good personal relations for a long time. so, from this point, it's not that you are basically talking about something that happened somewhere. in a certain way this is normally a type of imitation and transformation that is happening in front of our eyes and in a way we've been part of it. it was very important to not just simply say this was wrong but to try to understand the sources. because, when it comes to the source of this shift, for the moment there are three explanations which has certain validity like any other explanation but i don't by the basically explaining. one is an economic explanation and people talk about the rights

through a very prolonged period incomenegative real growth for the lower quintiles of society in western democracyrisk that we run is the free market economics is rejected at the ballot box if we allow this divergence and economic for fortunes -- economic fortunes to continue. you see that the rise of populism in europe, for example. clearly this polarization of economic outcomes in america was a large factor in the election of donald trump. there is a domestic compulsion here to say that the status quo is unsustainable for the democracies. but you are right, there is a geopolitical dimension to this. there is a good argument for saying the chinese have been using geoeconomic instruments, if you like, to further geopolitical aims for decades now. so these tariffs, i don't see it as an initiation of rivalry i see it as a first step in a conservative -- concerted western response. haslinda: would you say that trump's past stance has worked? >> it is early to say that it has worked because we need a clear definition of what the aims are. has certainly taken the chinese by surprise. of the, for the ma

years, populism has been flowing through the political system in america as it has for most western democracies and being felt on the left and right. partly in reaction to the financial crisis and partly in response to other things. both political parties are disrupted from top to bottom, nationally. >> i think i am a pretty good surrogate for a lot of what happened in texas, which is, i had been a to and i worked with democrats. i was at a point in my life where i was paying more taxes, feeling a little more conservative. before that time, texas was a two-party state. there really was no republican party. george bush came to this compassionate conservative idea. i remember issues that were compelling to me. there were a lot of us that crossed the bridge at that time because it was a compelling idea and vision. we had not had that alternative. when he came to town, that is why a lot of us signed up. >> why were the democrats leaving? >> if lloyd bensen had showed up in 1996, he would have been republican, i think. >> this started before bush. 20 years before bush and it begins with the urbaniza

we are the backbone of western democracy and civilization for that matter.ve a president who has no shame. not even engaged and not a patriot, the world is being held together can scotch tape. >> it stood out to me in very stark relief given the entire -- the event to commemorate world war i and you saw this front of european leaders and the president of the united states, the idea is to present a united front and to remember those who joined together to fight in world war i and yet now such -- it just stood in such stark relief to what the situation is right now essentially, there wasn't a show of unity that the entire event was supposed to represent. >> there wasn't. it seemed that the person that trump got along best with during the encounter at the hundrlunch surprise, surprise, vladmir putin. anderson, i want to give a brief shout out in trump's honor to some world war i veterans. the 369th infantry. the harlem hell fighters. all black. we sent them to shore up a french division. they were in the trenches longer than any. on this veterans day, on this a

. >> he wants to see western democracies in crisis, in chaos. mostly so they can't challenge him. >> vladimir putin is one of the most powerful men in the world. >> and he has forced himself on to that stage no matter how much anybody else might want to keep him off. >> that's a toughness that came early to putin. >> he was a child of the soviet union born in leningrad in 195 2. the only surviving son of vladimir and maria putin. in a city still reeling from the ravages of the german invasion during world war ii. >> no country has ever suffered the losses that the soviet union suffer between 1941 and 1945. over 20 million dead. the siege of leningrad, putin's home city was surrounded for 900 days. >> people in leningrad talked about eating human flesh to stay alive. people dying on the streets of starvation. anybody who grew up there would have heard these stories. >> it was a hard-scrabble life. the putins lived with two families in a communal apartment. >> he was kind of a little bit of a street hooligan, a small guy and he would make a point