January 2026, Volume 37, Issue 1
The reelection of Uganda’s octogenarian president Yoweri Museveni may be a foregone conclusion, but the country is wracked with unease. His highly personalized regime is passing, and there is no clear view of what will follow.
January 2026, Volume 37, Issue 1
As Tanzania’s October 2025 sham election got underway, protests broke out across the country, sparking a brutal regime crackdown. That brief reign of terror marks a turning point for both the ruling party and the Tanzanian people. There is no going back.
January 2026, Volume 37, Issue 1
Moldova is poor, strategically located, and under intense pressure from Russia. But one of Europe’s smallest players has come up with a surprisingly effective recipe for holding Russian dominance at bay.
January 2026, Volume 37, Issue 1
Ecuador was already besieged by crime and violence. Now it faces a populist president whose “strong hand” policies show little success. They may do even more damage to the country’s democracy.
January 2026, Volume 37, Issue 1
Two decades ago, there was a wave of optimism about the rise of “Muslim democracy,” but these hopes have not been realized. What are the real barriers to progress?
January 2026, Volume 37, Issue 1
Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan are embattled democracies shaped by historic traumas and facing dire threats from powers that deny their right to exist. Can democracy endure in such conditions?
January 2026, Volume 37, Issue 1
Whether preying on people’s anxieties or playing the part of the progressive liberal, autocrats and would-be authoritarians see “gender” as a tool that can be adapted to whatever use best serves their interests.
January 2026, Volume 37, Issue 1
Authoritarians often abuse electoral systems and institutional power to thwart majority will. But the basic principles of democracy—political participation, fundamental rights, and the rule of law—can take shape in more than one way.
January 2026, Volume 37, Issue 1
While attending to the risk of majoritarian abuse, we must also guard against institutions that empower—and even entrench—authoritarian minorities.
October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4
People are losing faith in democracy’s ability to deliver social progress. But are democracies better than autocracies at promoting economic growth, alleviating poverty, and creating healthier, more educated, and more peaceful societies? On all counts, the answer is yes.
October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4
Today, governments can see who buys what, who pays whom, and who donates to which cause. But they cannot easily trace or confiscate Bitcoin. The digital currency offers a lifeline to democratic movements operating in the most repressive places.
October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4
Authoritarian regimes are targeting exiles and diaspora communities in more places than ever before. Activists, journalists, and regular people living abroad must watch their backs, because these governments now have the power to suppress dissent even outside their borders.
October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4
When the Soviet Union fell, Cuba did not democratize but instead was turned into a raw kleptocracy by Communist Party insiders. Decades later, this “mafia” has driven the country into the worst crisis in its history.
October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4
When Israel’s democratic safeguards came under attack, Israeli political scientists felt they had a duty to spread a shared, nonpartisan understanding of the dangers of democratic backsliding. Here is how they organized, built channels of communication, and reached the public.
October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4
Conventional wisdom says that, once in power, opposition parties will return backsliding countries to the democratic path. In reality, not only is this not true, but it is not uncommon for the opposition to adopt the autocratic habits of the regime they replaced.
October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4
Evo Morales’s Movement Toward Socialism transformed Bolivian politics. But after almost two decades in power, the party is unraveling. No longer the country’s anchor, the MAS has become a major driver of instability and political decay.
October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4
Latin America remains haunted by the specter of “strongman” rule. Term limits have been a way of guarding against this threat, but aspiring autocrats have now found a new avenue to bypass this barrier to power: courts of law.
October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4
Although an island of stability and democracy in a region often short of both, Costa Ricans’ faith in government is declining as the challenge of financing its costly welfare state grows. This democratic stalwart is no longer immune to the appeal of populism.
October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4
After a turbulent election cycle, with an incumbent leader postponing the vote and putting his thumb on the scale, voters elected a new president and, for the third time in Senegalese history, a new ruling party. How did the country keep its democracy from crumbling?
October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4
Artificial intelligence and its effects on democracy are a matter of choice, not fate. The concerns are longer term than the recent spate of worry about “generative” AI would suggest. The democratic conversation about AI has hardly begun.
