BTI Blog | Transformationsindex BTI 2016

BTI Publication Triggers Fruitful Debates in Many Countries

April 19, 2018 / Robert Schwarz

The Bertelsmann Transformation Index 2018 met with a considerable response in the media in the first weeks following its publication. Most of the reactions were positive and substantive. The worrying findings of the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI) 2018 on the state of democracy in developing countries and emerging economies did have quite an impact on […]

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European People's Party/flickr.com, CC BY 2.0

Election Polls Versus Opinion Polls in Hungary

April 05, 2018 / Hauke Hartmann

There is a very strong probability that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party is going to defend its parliamentary majority in the national elections on Sunday. However, despite a disunited opposition, election laws that strongly favor Fidesz, and a political climate of intimidation and fear, there is nonetheless a minuscule chance for a political upset. […]

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Factory Workers in Cambodia. Photo by ILO in Asia and the Pacific, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

Built Upon Non-Interference: Can ASEAN Economic Integration Succeed?

April 03, 2018 / Justine Doody

In April 2018, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will host its 32nd summit. The path to economic integration laid down by the foundation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015 holds the promise of increasing living standards and growth – but it also presents challenges to the group’s policy of non-interference in […]

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Presidential elections 2014 in Egypt. Photo by Zeinab Mohamed. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

Presidential Elections in Egypt: A Sense of Déjà-vu

March 26, 2018 / Jan Claudius Völkel

Egyptians vote for their next president from March 26-28, 2018. According to the National Election Authority, more than 59 million voters are registered for this election. But do they have a choice? Remember Egypt’s last presidential elections in May 2014 when Abdel Fattah al-Sisi got 97% of all votes? When only one opponent, Hamdeen Sabahi, […]

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Putin meets Xi. Photo by www.kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Do Strongmen Govern Better?

March 22, 2018 / Robert Schwarz

In many developing and transition countries, people are looking for simple solutions and flirt with authoritarianism. This trend will have dire consequences because autocracies are hopelessly inferior to democracies in the long term. Within just a few days, the leaders of the two most influential autocracies, China and Russia, have set the course for continuity […]

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The shadow of a military airplane. Photo by Robert Couse-Baker via flickr.com, CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Military Influence: the Hidden Power of Men in Uniform

March 19, 2018 / Tanja Eschenauer

Officers and generals have always been influential and powerful actors, who meddle with politics. Today not so much by coups and direct rule, but by pulling the strings in the background. A new dataset reveals these substantial but indirect political roles of the military. No political leader, democratic or autocratic, can survive in office without […]

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Evening in Port Louis, Mauritius' capital. Photo by Peter Kuchar via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

Mauritius: Ready for a Second Economic Miracle?

March 09, 2018 / Sean Carey

On March 12, 2018, Mauritius celebrates 50 years of independence. The country is proud of its economic progress and the government has set an ambitious goal: to transform the remote island state into a high-income country within the next few years. What is the origin of the Mauritian success story? In 1961 Nobel-prize-winning British economist […]

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Vladimir Putin in Volgograd. Photo by www.kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Russian Presidential Election: To the Victor, Stagnation

February 26, 2018 / Hans-Joachim Spanger

Putin will remain Russia’s strong man for another six years. But his muscle-flexing on the international stage is designed to divert attention from the country’s dismal economic outlook. A key feature of democratic elections, according to Polish-American political scientist Adam Przeworski, is their “institutionalized uncertainty”: Anyone can win. There is no question that Russia’s presidential […]

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Olympic flag and South Korean flag. Photo by Anja Johnson via Wikimedia Commons.

Peaceful Olympics amid Thawing Tensions

February 08, 2018 / Robert Schwarz

On 9 February the Pyeongchang Olympics will be opened. This means that South Korea will be the first country examined by the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI) to host both summer and winter games. We fact-check the 2018 Olympics through the looking glass of selected criteria and indicators of our index, which will be published in […]

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Villagers during the bombing of Hajar Aukaish - Yemen - in April 2015. Photo by Almigdad Mojalli/VOA, via wikimedia.com. Public Domain, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en

The Regional Proxy War in Yemen: Deadly Interferences

February 05, 2018 / Elham Manea

Yemen is suffering one of the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophes. To resolve it, it is necessary to look beyond the national conflict. Yemen’s civil war is complex. It’s a violent conflict between competing Yemeni factions, each of which is allying itself with regional, sectarian, tribal and Islamist groups. The country has a long history of instability and […]

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BTI Publication Triggers Fruitful Debates in Many Countries

Election Polls Versus Opinion Polls in Hungary

Built Upon Non-Interference: Can ASEAN Economic Integration Succeed?

Presidential Elections in Egypt: A Sense of Déjà-vu

Do Strongmen Govern Better?

Military Influence: the Hidden Power of Men in Uniform

Mauritius: Ready for a Second Economic Miracle?

Russian Presidential Election: To the Victor, Stagnation

Peaceful Olympics amid Thawing Tensions

The Regional Proxy War in Yemen: Deadly Interferences

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