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Johns Hopkins Univ. Press

October 2007, Volume 18, Number 4

Is East-Central Europe Backsliding?

  1. EU Accession Is No "End of History"
    Alina Mungiu-Pippidi
    The countries of Central and Eastern Europe successfully transitioned to democracy. Do their ongoing political problems exist today because of or in spite of the European Union?

  2. From Democracy Fatigue to Populist Backlash
    Jacques Rupnik
    The populist backlash against corruption, the CEE transition-era elites, and the liberal consensus has led to a democratic crisis, but does not portend systemic change.

  3. The Political-Party Landscape
    Krzysztof Jasiewicz
    The real danger in East-Central Europe comes not from populist ideology or attempts to subvert democracy, but rather from the manipulation of democratic procedures by those in power.

  4. Leninist Legacies, Pluralist Dilemmas
    Vladimir Tismaneanu
    To understand how East-Central European societies have evolved since 1989, we must understand the building blocks that contribute to the establishment and functioning of open societies.

  5. Economic Woes and Political Disaffection
    Béla Greskovits
    Declining voter turnout and political unrest have characterized the CEE countries since EU enlargement. Surprisingly, marginalized groups have largely ceased to participate while the "mainstream" electorate has become radicalized.

  6. Nightmares from the Past, Dreams of the Future
    Martin Bútora
    Since 1989, CEE countries have built a dream of opportunity, peace, and autonomy. Do recent populist trends pose a threat to this dream and the ongoing development of democracy in the region?

  7. The Strange Death of the Liberal Consensus
    Ivan Krastev
    The paradox of East-Central Europe is that the rise of populism is an outcome not of the failures but of the successes of postcommunist liberalism.
    *This is a corrected text of the print and original online version of this essay, which lacked proper citation for some of its sources. This is the only version that should be used for citation or further dissemination.

Iran's Resilient Civil Society

  1. Iran's Resilient Civil Society
    Ladan Boroumand
    Observers who focus too much on elections have failed to grasp the maturation of Iranian civil society, even as hard-liners have come to dominate the government.

  2. The Student Movement's Struggle
    Ali Afshari and H. Graham Underwood
    The widespread disaffection of students and other young people in Iran's youth-heavy society points to a grave legitimacy problem for the regime.
Nigeria's Muddled Elections
Rotimi T. Suberu
Force and fraud badly marred the April 2007 elections, but hope remains that the courts may set at least some of the worst cases right.

A Quarter-Century of Promoting Democracy
Thomas Carothers, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Larry Diamond, Anwar Ibrahim, and Zainab Hawa Bangura
The past twenty-five years have seen great advances in democracy promotion, but new challenges are emerging.

Latin America's Indigenous Peoples
Donna Lee Van Cott
One of the big stories in Latin American politics over the last decade has been the mobilization of indigenous peoples under new and more democratic conditions. What are the successes and problems that this shift has brought?

Understanding Democracy: Data From Unlikely Places
Russell J. Dalton, Doh C. Shin, and Willy Jou
Recent polls show that even in societies with little experience of self-government, ordinary people not only want democracy but know what it means.

The Quest for Self-Rule in Tibet
Michael C. Davis
Is there a middle ground between independence and subjugation that Tibet might some day enjoy? The basis for a solution may exist within the current Chinese constitution.

Books in Review

  • China's Would-Be Citizens
    Liu Junning
    A review of From Comrade to Citizen: The Struggle for Political Rights in China by Merle Goldman.

Election Watch

  • Reports on recent elections in Cameroon, Congo (Brazzaville), Guatemala, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Mali, Morocco, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste, Turkey, and Ukraine.

Documents on Democracy

  • Excerpts from the communiqué summarizing the positions adopted at a postelection Nigerian civil society summit held in April to discuss dissatisfaction with the recent presidential and parliamentary elections.

  • Excerpts from a report from Abuja by IFES Africa Deputy Director Nathan Van Dusen explaining why the Nigerian election results were received without mass protests, despite calls to action.

  • Excerpts from an open letter issued by more than forty prominent Chinese defenders of human rights on August 7 calling for specific reforms in China before the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games.
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