For more than twenty years, the Journal of Democracy has been a leading voice in the conversation between scholars and practitioners about government by consent and its place in the contemporary world. The Journal is published for the National Endowment for Democracy by the Johns Hopkins University Press and is available online through Project MUSE. If you or your institution subscribe to MUSE, you can access full current and past articles. Read more about the Journal...
About the April 2012 Issue
What explains the simultaneous calls for both democracy and a return to shari‘a amid the political upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa? Abdou Filali-Ansary explores this seeming paradox in “The Languages of the Arab Revolutions,” while Alfred Stepan analyzes the divergent paths of the Egyptian and Tunisian transitions in “Tunisia’s Transition and the Twin Tolerations.”
The April issue also covers Freedom House’s latest report on “Freedom in the World,” the relationship between elections and violence in “bottom-billion” countries, as well as developments in Nicaragua, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere.
New Books
Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy
This book addresses such broad issues as whether democracy promotes inequality, the socioeconomic factors that drive democratic failure, and the basic choices that societies must make as they decide how to deal with inequality.
Democratization in Africa: Progress and Retreat
At a time when democracy seems to be in retreat in many parts of the world, Africa presents a more mixed picture. Democratization in Africa: Progress and Retreat brings into focus the complex landscape of African politics by pairing broad analytical surveys with country-specific case studies.
Latest Articles
Tunisia’s Transition and the Twin Tolerations
April 2012
Of all the “Arab Spring” countries, so far only Tunisia has managed to make a transition to democracy. Tunisians now have a chance to show the world a new example of how religion, society, and the state can relate to one another under democratic conditions.
The Languages of the Arab Revolutions
April 2012
The upheavals that have been shaking the Arab-Muslim world are revolutions in discourse as well as in the streets. Arabs are using not only traditional and religious vocabularies, but also a new set of expressions that are modern and represent popular aspirations.
