Debate—Presidents vs. Parliaments: The Centrality of Political Culture

Spain’s system of Autonomous Communities had functioned fairly smoothly for decades following the country’s democratic transition, but events in Catalonia are putting it under unprecedented strain.

The electoral triumph of Islamist parties has dampened the enthusiasm of democrats for the “Arab Spring.”

The journalistic and policy communities have been alive with speculation as to whether Islamist groups involved in politics—including Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Palestine’s Hamas— are true believers in democracy or…