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Johns Hopkins Univ. Press
July 2004

July 2004, Volume 15, Number 3

Crafting a Constitution for Afghanistan
Barnett R. Rubin
As 2004 began, Afghanistan approved a new constitution that represents a key step forward in its political reconstruction. But it is not yet clear whether this new constitution will enable the country to surmount the many challenges that lie ahead.

Russian Democracy in Eclipse

  1. What the Elections Tell Us
    Michael McFaul and Nikolai Petrov
    President Vladimir Putin's lopsided election victory was assisted by an unlevel electoral playing field, but elections still matter in Russia and they will make more difficult the consolidation of authoritarianism.


  2. Force, Money, and Pluralism
    Stephen Sestanovich
    Post-Soviet Russia's future may well turn on the interplay of state power with the business interests that now form Russia's best hope for advances in political pluralism.


  3. What the Polls Tell Us
    Yuri A. Levada
    The first flush of democratic hopes has faded, as the recent elections have emphasized. But the democratic idea has a foothold, and the presidential machine that swept those elections will not have an easy time retaining its sway.


  4. The Liberal Debacle
    Vladimir Ryzhkov
    Russia's liberal-democratic parties have failed. It is time for a new movement that can gain the trust of the Russian people by putting forward a full reform program based on liberal and democratic principles.


  5. The Next Generation
    Nadia Diuk
    Hopes for democratization now rest on the shoulders of the young. Who are they, what do they believe, and what are their political leanings? Survey data offer some clues.


  6. The Limits of Bureaucratic Authoritarianism
    Lilia Shevtsova
    Vladimir Putin aspires to be a classic authoritarian modernizer, but in today's globalized world Russia faces challenges that bureaucratic centralization and a traditional strong hand cannot meet.

South Africa After Apartheid: The First Decade
Rod Alence
Over the ten years since its first nonracial elections in 1994, South Africa has seen its democratic order become more firmly institutionalized, even as the electoral dominance of the ANC has continued to grow.

World Religions and Democracy

  1. The Ironies of Confucianism
    Hahm Chaibong
    Confucianism has had a long history of involvement with the state in East Asia, but today there are reasons to think that it can become a positive force in encouraging democracy.


  2. Hinduism and Self-Rule
    Pratap Bhanu Mehta
    Creative Hindu responses to modern challenges are a crucial part of the democratic story in India, yet Hindus must guard against those who would politicize Hindu identity.


  3. Judaism and Political Life
    Hillel Fradkin
    Today, Jews the world over are closely and correctly associated with liberal democracy. What are the wellsprings of Jewish tradition and commitment that feed this association?

Curbing Central America's Militaries
J. Mark Ruhl
Since the end of the Cold War, Central America has seen a regionwide diminution of military influence that bodes well for democratic governance and healthier civil-military relations.

Conversation

  • The Perils of Identity Politics
    Marcel Gauchet, Pierre Manent, and Alain Finkielkraut
    Three leading French political thinkers reflect on why modern democracies tend to forget their own natures, even to the point of encouraging an assertive "identitarianism" that could undermine liberal democracy itself.

Books in Review

  • What Makes Democracies Collapse?
    Frances Hagopian
    A review of Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times: The Citizenry and the Breakdown of Democracy by Nancy Bermeo.

Election Watch

  • Reports on recent elections in Algeria, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, India, Indonesia, Macedonia, Malawi, Malaysia, Panama, Philippines, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan.

Documents on Democracy

  • Excerpts from the Alexandria Declaration, a document emanating from a March 2004 conference on Arab reform convened under the auspices of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak at Egypt's Bibliotheca Alexandrina.


  • Excerpts from an initiative on political reform issued by the first Arab Civil Forum on March 22, meeting in advance of the Arab Summit in Tunis.


  • Excerpts from the Tunis Declaration, issued at the end of the Arab Summit, held in Tunisia on May 22-23.


  • Excerpts from a June 2 response from 34 Arab nongovernmental organizations to the Arab Summit declaration.


  • Excerpts from President Vladimir Putin's first post-election State of the Nation address, delivered to parliament on May 26.


  • Excerpts from a June 4 letter by Ding Zilin, leader of the Tiananmen Mothers movement, marking the fifteenth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.


  • Excerpts from South African president Thabo Mbeki's April 27 inaugural address marking the start of his second term in office.


  • Excerpts from the foreword to a study on the state of democracy in Latin America, released by the United Nations Development Programme on April 21.
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