Russell Bova is associate professor of political science at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He has written widely on Soviet and postcommunist politics and is currently at work on a book on democratization in Russia.
Those who argue that democracy requires preconditions often cite the example of gradual unfolding set by the established democracies. A glance at history, however, shows that even today's most placid…
Liberalism as a governing order is barely two centuries old. A response to the great alternatives presented by Europe’s political history, it represents a unique synthesis of the ancient and the modern.…