Democracy Lab Weekly Brief, November 30, 2015

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Farah Samti reports from Tunis, a city reeling from a brazen terrorist attack last week.

Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez explains how Mauricio Macri’s election as president of Argentina may lead to a more honest reckoning with Latin America’s human rights violations.

Jay Ulfelder argues that the continual parade of grim human rights reports belies a gradual and measurable improvement of human rights practices around the world.

Juan Nagel describes how a new generation of activists is transforming Venezuela’s political opposition ahead of a crucial parliamentary election.

And now for this week’s recommended reads:

In the New York Times, David Kirkpatrick, Ben Hubbard, and Eric Schmitt paint a frightening portrait of the Islamic State’s new bastion in Libya.

In the BBC Magazine, Daniel Silas Adamson tells the story of Amina Sboui, a provocative feminist who has just returned to her home in Tunisia after several years abroad.

In the Washington Post, Jackson Diehl warns that Poland’s illiberal new right-wing government is endangering Europe’s democratic political order.

In Vox, Jennifer Williams interviews Iyad el-Baghdadi about the appeal of the Islamic State, and how it’s being fueled by a “crisis of legitimacy within Islam.”

In the Washington Post’s “Monkey Cage” blog, Jaimie Bleck, Abdoulaye Dembele, and Guindo Sidiki explain why citizens of Mali view corruption and poor governance as the main causes of their country’s current instability.

DevEx’s Jeff Tyson interviews Essan Emile Ako, managing director of Radio Arc-en-ciel in the Ivory Coast, who talks about his radio station’s role in his country’s democratic development.

The National Democratic Institute has just released a new guide, available for free online, that advises political parties how they can effectively use information technology in their work. The guide includes interesting case studies from India, Cambodia, Mexico, and other countries.

And finally, check out Press Start, a new journalism crowdfunding platform, funded in part by the National Endowment for Democracy, that aims to attract support for independent journalism in the developing world.