Democracy

Analysis | International

The Paper Shield: Why Every Nation Waves a Constitution Nobody Reads
ByDaveslocker 9 September 2025

The Paper Shield: How Constitutions Became the World’s Most Popular Fiction Genre By our correspondent in the departures lounge of a failing republic GENEVA—While you were binge-watching constitutional crises on mute in the airport bar, 195 countries were quietly updating their national origin stories. The product? A tidy 800-word PDF that promises to turn blood-soaked…

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International | Politics

Sher Bahadur Deuba’s Fifth Act: Nepal’s Gerontocracy Charms the World Again
ByDaveslocker 9 September 2025

Kathmandu’s weather is famously unreliable—monsoon one minute, smog the next—so it’s fitting that Sher Bahadur Deuba has popped in and out of the prime minister’s chair more often than a Himalayan teahouse changes its Wi-Fi password. On 13 July 2021, the 75-year-old liberal warhorse saddled up for his fifth non-consecutive term, a feat that would…

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