April 2023, Volume 34, Issue 2
The past year offered the brightest picture in almost two decades, as global improvements in freedom nearly equaled global declines. Is democracy poised for a comeback?
April 2023, Volume 34, Issue 2
Although Saddam fell twenty years ago, the politicians who have come after him still think like Baathists. But a new generation has begun making itself heard. It believes in Iraq as a nation and it understands democracy as more than a source of spoils to be divided among groups.
April 2023, Volume 34, Issue 2
The global democratic decline of the last two decades is rarely discussed in the same breath with the 2003 decision by the United States and Britain to invade Iraq. But the roots of our present disorder can be traced to that disastrous and foolhardy war of choice.
April 2023, Volume 34, Issue 2
Iraq today is more of a democracy than most people think, but still less of a democracy than it could be. While its future is uncertain, one thing is not: It will be determined by Iraqis.
April 2023, Volume 34, Issue 2
A review of Beijing’s Global Media Offensive: China’s Uneven Campaign to Influence Asia and the World by Joshua Kurlantzick.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
When ordinary voters are given a choice between democracy and partisan loyalty, who will put democracy first? Frighteningly, Europe harbors a deep reservoir of authoritarian potential.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
The government of Giorgia Meloni, the country’s first female prime minister, is popular, scary, and competent. Her far-right party also enjoys greater democratic legitimacy than any other Italian party in a long time.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
The rising, far-right Sweden Democrats keep doing better in Swedish elections. They are now the country’s second-largest party, and their influence on Swedish political life has never been greater.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
After long condemning gay rights, much of Europe’s political right now champions them. They have made welcoming gay voters a sign of modernity and openness—and a tool for stirring opposition to Muslim immigrants.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
The Chinese Communist Party is deadly serious about its authoritarian designs, and it is bent on promoting them. It is time for the world’s democracies to get serious, too.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
When Vladimir Putin launched a massive invasion of Ukraine, he expected an easy victory. Instead, the world has witnessed an object lesson in how a corrupt Russian regime crippled its own military power.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
Indonesia is a leading example for fledgling democracies navigating tough transitions. But it is imperiled, and if it gives way, the loss for the democratic world will be enormous.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
The record shows that movements using “dilemma actions”—creative protests that make a regime look foolish—are often more effective at undermining authoritarians. Activists should add such tactics to their toolkit.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
Brazil’s charismatic former president is back, but there will be no honeymoon for the left. He won by a sliver, and his opponents on the right were empowered by the same election.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
After two votes and a yearlong drafting process, Chileans rejected the progressive charter they had claimed to want. Right-wing attacks and voter anxiety are to blame. But can Chileans get it right?
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
This is the toughest time for Latin America’s democracies in decades. Democratic stagnation makes them ripe targets for illiberal populists and other would-be authoritarians who will feed the region’s worst vices.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
Trillions of dollars are stashed in the world’s secret financial system, where they are keeping autocratic regimes afloat and fueling democracy’s decline.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
McKinsey’s work is bankrolled by major corporations and governments around the world. How should the famous consulting firm choose the clients it represents and the projects it takes on?
October 2022, Volume 33, Issue 4
Democracy’s meaning has always been contested. Letting that struggle become a battle between existential foes risks upending the whole democratic project.
October 2022, Volume 33, Issue 4
Will Russia’s war tip the Kremlin even further toward tyranny while fortifying Ukraine’s democracy? That will depend on Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky as much as on the course of the war itself.
