Word: authoritarians
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...country famously assumed to be authoritarian, like China, you might think such repeated investment of personal authority by a top leader would produce rapid results. Not so. In fact, central- government efforts to rein in local authorities have been not only ignored but also actively blocked. Last October Beijing announced that it was delaying until 2010 a plan that would have forced the closure of thousands of small mines, which account for the majority of accidents. According to the official Xinhua News Agency, the plan foundered because of opposition from local governments, which see mines as their "major capital sources...
...crucial for Lebanon, the Middle East and the U.S. that Siniora succeeds in safeguarding Lebanon's independence and guiding its political and economic reconstruction. In a struggle between a rare Arab democratic movement supported by the West and parties backed by authoritarian regimes in Syria and Iran, his defeat would shatter a model for other Arab states to follow and dash the Bush Administration's only realistic hope for a Middle East success story. Victory for Iran, Syria and its allies, on the other hand, would probably doom the country to future conflicts with Israel and trigger a new exodus...
...Grigorovich quit after more than three decades as artistic director, but his departure brought only more turmoil. A battle between those allied to the outgoing leader - a communist supporter and strict authoritarian - and those seeking change polarized an already embattled corps of dancers and musicians. Leadership changed hands four times between 1995 and 2004, including a stint by famed former principal dancer Vasiliev, who was unceremoniously dismissed in 2000 by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself. The short-lived replacements were all part of Russian ballet's insular old guard. "They were doing Sleeping Beauty the way it had always been...
...broader range of candidates, and feels confident enough to tailor her hejab accordingly, suggests an erosion of social boundaries that can only be healthy for a country that had a revolution, in part, over the role of religion in governance and daily life. It is difficult to envision that authoritarian laws have somehow made Iranian society more tolerant. There is a sort of perverse pluralism in today's Iran, where the moral weight of the family is removed in questions of religiosity, and young people, exposed to the same restrictions, grow up freer to choose and change...
...Year this weekend, there is much hyperbole about the country's gleaming new skyscrapers, swelling middle class, dazzling preparations for the Olympics and so forth. But it is always worth getting a reality check on what underlies that rosy picture, the fact that China remains a highly repressive authoritarian state. I met recently in a small Beijing cafe with social activist Teng Biao and public-interest lawyer Li Heping, two unassuming gentlemen who are painfully well aware of the lengths the Chinese system will go to preserve itself...