There was an interesting new post at Democracy Digest. It addresses the attacks on democracy from the perspective of the personalisation of power. The article states that:

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. Carefully maintained constitutional arrangements are in tatters, notes Ngaire Woods, dean of the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford.

The shredding of longstanding protections for minority communities is part of a wider trend in democracies around the world. Three worrying features stand out, she writes for The Strategist:

• • First, politicians are imperiling the ‘public square’, and the ability of citizens to argue, demonstrate and debate without the threat of violence. Political leaders are deepening social divisions by pitting an ‘us’ against a ‘them’ that includes foreigners, neighbors, immigrants, minorities, the press, ‘experts’, and ‘the elite’….

Full story found here.