October 2022, Volume 33, Issue 4
Democracies are under stress, but they are not about to buckle. The erosion of norms and other woes do not spell democratic collapse. With incredibly few exceptions, affluent democracies will endure, no matter the schemes of would-be autocrats.
October 2022, Volume 33, Issue 4
Opposition movements often boycott rigged polls rather than risk legitimizing an autocrat. It is usually a mistake. Here is the playbook for how one opposition seized the advantage.
July 2020, Volume 31, Issue 3
In the decade leading up to the covid-19 pandemic, nonviolent civil resistance grew more popular than ever—but its effectiveness had already started to plummet. The future of nonviolent resistance may depend on movements’ ability to move beyond mass protests toward exploring alternative tactics and developing smarter, longer-term strategies.
October 2021, Volume 32, Issue 4
Thirty years after the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia is firmly in the grip of an autocrat. Where did Russia’s path go wrong?
After a Wave of Protests, China’s Silent Crackdown (December 2022)
Nationwide protests against Xi Jinping’s zero-covid policy caught the Chinese Communist Party off-guard. Expect the Party’s security apparatus to strike back with quiet precision.
By Sheena Chestnut Greitens
Breaking Out of Xi’s Great Prison (November 2022)
Chinese citizens from Urumqi to Shanghai took to the streets, blank sheets of white paper in hand, to denounce the CCP and call for change. Xi Jinping’s repression and zero-covid lockdowns has united the public in empathy and anger.
By Guoguong Wu
Why Sanctions Don’t Work Against Dictatorships (November 2022)
From Putin’s invasion to Kim’s nuclear saber rattling, the West has punished the world’s worst regimes. But have sanctions missed their targets?
By Agathe Demarais
January 2023
The Journal of Democracy has analyzed democracy’s fortunes across the globe, from Ukraine to Afghanistan and the Philippines, from Hungary to Tunisia. Here are our top-ten most-read essays from 2022.
December 2022
In 2022, we began publishing shorter, exclusively online pieces. No topic mattered more to you than Russia’s disastrous war in Ukraine. We also published essays from the sharpest minds on protests in China and Iran, instability in Pakistan, and more.
In a deeply polarized United States, ordinary people now consume and espouse once-radical ideas and are primed to commit violence.
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.
Volodymyr Zelensky is far more than a brave wartime leader. He began changing the tenor and direction of Ukrainian politics long before the people made him their president.
Featuring Robert Faris & Joan Donovan, Nathalie Maréchal, Dipayan Ghosh & Ramesh Srinivasan, Daphne Keller, and Francis Fukuyama
Experts debate Francis Fukuyama’s solution to making Big Tech work for democracy.
EXPANDED EDITION
Larry Diamond
A longer version of his final essay as Journal of Democracy coeditor.
Our April 2022 issue, featuring “How Autocrats Weaponize Women’s Rights” by Elin Bjarnegård and Pär Zetterberg, is now available free of charge.
