AUTHORITARIANISM
This pandemic has allowed governments to consolidate their stranglehold on power.
by Piers Pigou
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We need to resist the pull of societies to become insular and increasingly repressive. Leaders across the globe are using emergency powers and the current situation to become more authoritarian. This pandemic has allowed governments to violate civil liberties, mute the media, detain critics, weaken the opposition, and consolidate their stranglehold on power.
We need to help civil society and voices of moderation to push for their restored freedoms and rights. We need to continue collectively working against authoritarianism, corruption and intimidation. Citizens and activists globally need to engage to help each other and their governments rethink the social contract.
Rethinking social contracts
Piers Pigou, Crisis Group's Senior Consultant for Southern Africa.
OUR SPEAKER
Piers Pigou
Piers Pigou is Crisis Group's Senior Consultant for Southern Africa. Formerly he was Crisis Group’s Southern Africa Project Director, overseeing the organisation's research and advocacy activities in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Angola.
Before joining Crisis Group, he served as the Program Manager at the Foundation for Human Rights, as a Senior Associate for Southern Africa at the International Center for Transitional Justice, as the Director of the South African History Archive and as a Research and Advocacy Coordinator at the Institute for Democratic Alternatives in South Africa/Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. Piers also worked for the Truth Commissions in both South Africa and East Timor. He holds a M.A. in Southern African Studies from York University and a B.A. (Hons) in Politics from Portsmouth Polytechnic.
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Individuals contributed with their image and content in a personal capacity, not as a part of their role in any institution or company listed on this website.
Resources and points of view
Democracy Versus the Pandemic, article in Foreign Affairs
The Coronavirus Is Emboldening Autocrats the World Over.
Respecting Human Rights in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic, article in Institute for Human Rights and Business
Given the scale and severity of the unfolding crisis, companies of all sizes and operating in all contexts are now faced with a range of unprecedented challenges that will require clarity of thinking, sharp focus on goals, commitment to adhere to international standards and norms, creativity, and a concerted effort toward collective action.
In Zambia, Covid-19 has claimed democracy, not human life, article in Mail&Guardian
Even before the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in March 2020, Zambia’s flight from being a model of democracy in Africa to a disguised authoritarianism had already taken off.
Democracy contains the seeds of its own recovery, an article in The Economist
A global democratic recession need not go on forever.
