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Member States of International IDEA commit to strengthen democratic governance in a statement for the Summit for Democracy hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden

The 2021 Summit for Democracy is a unique opportunity to remind us that democracy is “government of the people, by the people, for the people”.

The 2021 Women Constitution-Makers’ Dialogue focused on comparative experiences with constitutions, customary and religious law, and gender equality.

Timor-Leste is deep into preparations for the upcoming presidential elections, anticipated in March 2022.  Given the ongoing global Covid pandemic, the country’s two electoral management bodies (EMBs)—the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) and the National Commission on Elections (CNE)—are working to revise internal regulations and procedures to support Covid-safe elections. 

The Covid-19 pandemic initially broke out in the Asia and the Pacific region in late 2019, with the first cases in Wuhan, China. The pandemic has served as a magnifier of pre-existing democratic strengths and weaknesses within governing systems around Asia and the Pacific. In the majority of cases, the region’s hybrid and authoritarian regimes tightened their grip on society in response to the pandemic. Quality of democracy continued to decline in number of region’s democracies.

Democracy is at risk. Its survival is endangered by a perfect storm of threats, both from within and from a rising tide of authoritarianism.

Many democratic governments are increasingly adopting authoritarian tactics, accentuated by the Covid-19 pandemic, while autocratic regimes are consolidating their power.

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International IDEA’s Annual Review of Constitution-Building Processes: 2020 provides a retrospective account of constitutional reform processes around the world and from a comparative perspective, and their implications for national and international politics.

The background to this brief is the context of the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021, and the declaration of a state of emergency by the military, which has effectively set aside the 2008 Constitution and the elections held under it. The coup has been rejected by the international community as illegitimate and has generated a strong civil disobedience and protest movement, and those elected in November 2020 have formed interim institutions aiming to move towards a democratic order.

As a build-up to the Annual National Forum on Women in Politics to be held on 27 October 2021, International IDEA’s Asia and the Pacific Regional Programme organized a webinar entitled “Challenges faced by Women in the Path of Politics”. This topic is relevant considering Fiji will go to polls some time in the second half of next year.

This Discussion Paper was drafted for an International IDEA webinar on Taming the Incumbency Advantage (25 May 2021), the first of a series on innovative constitutional design options. It has been revised and updated to reflect contributions from webinar participants: Professor Juvence F. Ramasy (Madagascar), Professor Ridwanul Hoque (Bangladesh) and Professor Gabriel Negretto (Latin America), among others.

Regulations concerning the funding of political parties and election campaigns, commonly known as political finance, play a critical role in safeguarding the integrity of political processes and institutions in any democracy.

Fiji, being a transitional democracy with fragile institutional and regulatory mechanisms, is susceptible to the negative effects of money in politics. Yet for a very long time, regulations related to the funding of political parties, candidates and election campaigns, commonly known as political finance, were largely absent in the South Pacific country.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this commentary are those of the author. This commentary is independent of specific national or political interests. Views expressed do not necessarily represent the institutional position of International IDEA, its Board of Advisers or its Council of Member States.

As part of a  series entitled Conversations on Innovative Constitutional Design Options, International IDEA’s Constitution Building Programme hosted an expert panel to discuss “Constitutionalizing Institutions for a Safer Environment” on 16 September 2021. The webinar deliberated on the role of constitut

The Secretary-General of International IDEA, Dr Kevin Casas-Zamora, took part in the “Constitutionalizing Institutions for a Safer Environment webinar organized by the Institute’s Constitution-Building Programme on 16 September 2021. The event was part of the programme’s new webinar series on Conversations on Innovative Constitutional Design Options.

‘Even if you do put special [Covid] measures in place, they still have to preserve the fundamental democratic features of an election that make it free and fair ... and ensure that everyone can accept the result as legitimate.’ Michael Maley at the workshop on Covid-Resilient Elections in Timor-Leste. 

“The data that you (International IDEA) collected is a very systematic and comprehensive set of data.”

The Covid-19 pandemic has seen the marked centralization and exertion of executive power, and, more broadly, a focus on the response of other elected organs. However, the pandemic has also shone a light on the key roles played by unelected independent institutions and international bodies, from public health actors to courts to international organizations and beyond. Constitutional INSIGHTS No.

Countries with a federal form of government responded in distinctive ways to the health and economic crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Constitutional INSIGHTS No.7 explores what can be learned from this experience about the purposes, design and operation of federations, including for the division and allocation of powers and fiscal resources; collaboration and cooperation between levels of government; and the challenges of democratic accountability.