Image: The One Piece flag used during an anti-corruption protest in Manila, 2025 │MJX Studio / shutterstock_2686394273 This paper examines how a younger digitally native generation is redefining political participation and democratic accountability across Southeast Asia’s fragile democracies. Building on a comparative study of youth movements in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand, it explores how…

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Image: PradeepGaurs / Shutterstock The country’s education crisis is a global problem Gen Z has already passed the baton in India. After spotlighting the country’s broken public examinations through an unprecedented popular movement, it is Gen Alpha’s turn to lay bare even deeper layers of dysfunction in India’s education system. There’s a message for the world…

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Cover image: Alejandro Diaz Manrique / Shutterstock This paper focuses on the challenges of backsliding and recovery in the United States.  What are the primary sources of resilience, and what are the chances that American democracy can rebuild in the aftermath of the Trump era? The paper begins with a comparative look at ‘recovering backsliders’—countries…

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This report argues that New Zealand’s reputation as one of the world’s most stable social democracies increasingly obscures a quieter democratic erosion, evident across four domains: collapsing institutional trust, the structural collapse of the fourth estate, growing executive reliance on parliamentary urgency and fast-tracked legislation, and deepening constitutional tension over Māori rights. Yet erosion is…

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