News and views from the Blavatnik School of Government community 
India, long the world’s largest, most diverse and most hopeful democracy, is officially no longer a democracy. For the first time in almost fifty years, the world’s foremost democracy assessor, Freedom House, downgraded India’s rating from Free to Partly Free. The change this marks is considerable. For nearly three quarters […]
By abruptly revoking the special, constitutionally protected status of Jammu and Kashmir, India has become the latest major democracy to act against a minority community for short-term political popularity. Kashmir will henceforth be ruled more directly from the government in New Delhi, and Hindu nationalists are thrilled. Carefully maintained constitutional […]
Last week, the Senate of the State of Alabama passed the most restrictive abortion law in the United States. It allows abortions only when there is a “serious health risk” to the mother, precluding them in cases of rape, and raising penalties to up to 99 years in prison for […]
Three shifts, in particular, have created a more hostile environment for a plucky country wanting to set out on its own. First, the global rules-based system has been seriously weakened. Second, China no longer looks like such a good partner for the United Kingdom. And, third, tech platforms have left […]
Now that British Prime Minister Theresa May, facing certain defeat, has postponed Parliament’s vote on the deal she concluded with the European Union last month on the United Kingdom’s departure from the bloc, the case for a “people’s vote” – a second Brexit referendum – is gaining ground. But is […]
Earlier this month the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights hosted a conference entitled Confronting Illiberalism to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The day prior to the conference, Mansfield College erected a statue of Eleanor Roosevelt, the highly political US First Lady who, following her […]
On Wednesday 25 July, Pakistan held its general election which resulted in Imran Khan’s victory after a controversial political campaign. We have asked some of our Pakistani alumni for their thoughts about the election. Wasif Rehman is a current Master of Public Policy student (MPP 2017) and the recipient of […]
April 23th 2018 marked an incredibly important milestone in the history of Armenia and perhaps in the history of the whole post-Soviet space. After 11 days of peaceful protests demanding the resignation of newly elected prime minister Serzh Sargsyan, he resigned, wishing peace and harmony to the Armenian nation. It […]