How Dictators Use Financial Repression Against Their Opponents

  • Félix Maradiaga
Economic freedom is one of a tyrant’s first targets. My family and I have experienced this firsthand. But tools like Bitcoin offer a lifeline for activists fighting repressive states.
July 2024, Volume 35, Issue 3

Misunderstanding Democratic Backsliding

  • Thomas Carothers
  • Brendan Hartnett
If democracies did a better job “delivering” for their citizens, so the thinking goes, people would not be so ready to embrace antidemocratic alternatives. Not so. This conventional wisdom about democratic backsliding is seldom true and often not accurate at all.

Who Decides What Is Democratic?

The United States, like other polarized democracies, is in turmoil. Increasing radicalism, intolerance, and violence continue to rock the country in the run-up to the November election. These essays reflect on this polarization and how to protect ourselves from the damage it is inflicting.
October 2024, Volume 35, Issue 4

China’s Age of Counterreform

  • Carl Minzner
The People’s Republic of China has entered a new age, abandoning the ideological openness of the reform era and the socialist legacy of the revolutionary period. Under Xi Jinping, regime stability trumps all — and the PRC is weaker and less stable as a result.

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October 2023, Volume 34, Issue 4

How AI Threatens Democracy

Generative AI can flood the media, internet, and even personal correspondence with misinformation—sowing confusion for voters and government officials alike. If we fail to act, mounting mistrust will polarize our societies and tear at our institutions.

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October 2024, Volume 35, Issue 4

The Power of Liberal Nationalism

Democracy’s defenders have failed to appreciate the power of nationalism. They must arm themselves with emotionally compelling narratives to counter illiberal foes of free government. When they do, they are championing a winning message.

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April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2

America’s Crisis of Civic Virtue

The problem for democracy today is not capitalism; it is a decline in public honesty and civility. But there is an opportunity to revive our sense of national community, if we seize it.

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October 2024, Volume 35, Issue 4

How to Prevent Political Violence

Political violence is rising in wealthy democracies. Polarized societies and bitter party politics are putting candidates and election officials in serious peril. Political leaders, more than anyone, have the power to stoke or stamp out this dangerous cycle of violence.

Latest Online Exclusives

Why History Is Repeating Itself in Thailand | Wichuta Teeratanabodee and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom
Thai politics appears to be in a loop, with the military keeping people’s democratic hopes under wraps. But there is reason to believe the streets won’t be quiet for long.

Is Israel Losing Its Last Democratic Safeguard? | Oded Haklai and Andrew O’Donohue
The country’s mass protests were its last democratic guardrail. But Israel’s wartime goals have become a higher priority than keeping Netanyahu in check.

Did Muhammad Yunus Just Sign Up for Mission Impossible? | Šumit Ganguly
The famed economist and Nobel laureate is charged with repairing what remains of Bangladesh’s democracy. But is someone even as accomplished as Yunus up to the task?

News & Updates

What Comes Now?

November 2024

The biggest election in this “year of elections” is finally over. In contests across the world, voters have spoken. But what do their choices tell us about the state of democracy globally?


Trump Wins — Again

November 2024

Donald Trump won a second — and, this time, overwhelming — victory on November 5. As the United States and the world take stock, the Journal of Democracy is looking back at 2016 and Trump’s unlikely rise to power.


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What Putin Fears Most

Forget his excuses. Russia’s autocrat doesn’t worry about NATO. What terrifies him is the prospect of a flourishing Ukrainian democracy.

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The Rise of Political Violence in the United States

In a deeply polarized United States, ordinary people now consume and espouse once-radical ideas and are primed to commit violence.

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Misunderstanding Democratic Backsliding

If democracies did a better job “delivering” for their citizens, so the thinking goes, people would not be so ready to embrace antidemocratic alternatives. Not so. This conventional wisdom about democratic backsliding is seldom true and often not accurate at…

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How Viktor Orbán Wins

The case of Hungary shows how autocrats can rig elections legally, using legislative majorities to change the law and neutralize the opposition at every turn, no matter what strategy they adopt.