July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
Democracy is spreading everywhere except in the Arab world. Arab elections are an immense masquerade. Corrupt dictatorships seek to stifle freedom of thought and to control the flow of information.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
Many observers regarded 1999 as a year of progress for democracy in the Arab world. There is reason to doubt, however, whether any meaningful change has really occurred.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
While despotic Arab regimes may seem stable, change is brewing beneath the surface. A new era is emerging in which the state will be forced to retreat before a vibrant civil society.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
Pakistan’s descent into authoritarian rule starkly depicts the “triple crisis of governance” that threatens many third-wave democracies. If these problems of governance are not addressed, a new “reverse wave” of democratization could be imminent.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
The promotion of democracy in Africa has become the dominant theme of South Africa’s foreign policy. Yet the dilemmas this policy has confronted in practice have forced the government to alter its approach.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
One of the greatest obstacles to democratic consolidation in Turkey has been the country's treatment of its Kurdish citizens. The root of the problem lies in the very nature of the Turkish state, which confuses unity with uniformity.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
In recent years several Westminster-style parliamentary democracies have considered cutting their ties with the British monarchy and becoming republics. The difficulties involved in trying to make such a shift were on full display in Australia.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
As the experience of Latin America makes clear, a strong civil society is not necessarily a democratic one. Democratic deficits within civil society jeopardize its ability to perform its proper social functions.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
In The Logic of Japanese Politics, Gerald Curtis portrays the political history of Japan in the 1990s in its full complexity.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
The (Un)Rule of Law and the Underprivileged in Latin America, edited by Juan E. Méndez, Guillermo O’Donnell, and Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, offers a harsh appraisal of the region’s legal and justice systems.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
A quarter-century after the classic study The Crisis of Democracy was published, three distinguished political scientists find that, though the “crisis” may have disappeared, public confidence is on the decline in almost all the world’s advanced democracies.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
With Austria’s and Switzerland’s leading political parties having “rigged the political marketplace” by forming Grand Coalitions, voters have turned to the radical right as the only available alternative.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
Recent disappointments have led to excessive pessimism about Latin America’s economic and democratic prospects. International recognition of the region’s diversity and a sense of perspective about its setbacks will improve its chances for further success.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
The most striking thing about Fernando de la Rua’s presidential victory in Argentina was the routine-even boring-character of the elections. This turn toward normalization is a major break with the past.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
The unexpectedly strong showing of media-savvy rightist candidate Joaquín Lavín in the 1999 presidential elections and the move to the center by Concertación candidate Ricardo Lagos suggest that Chile has begun to put the ghosts of Allende and Pinochet to rest.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
Lavín’s strong showing did not represent an “earthquake” or a dramatic change in the electoral landscape. Voting patterns have remained basically unchanged since 1988, giving Lagos a clear mandate to lead Chile into the next millennium.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
In the November 1999 presidential election, Uruguayans reaffirmed their strong commitment to democracy, while adjusting to a set of constitutional reforms that profoundly altered the electoral system.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
A country's political regime, regardless of its level of development, affects its social performance. Fewer children die in democracies than in dictatorships.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
Nowhere else has the impact of international factors on democratization been as apparent as in Central and Eastern Europe. Integration into European and Euro-Atlantic structures is one particularly strong democratizing force.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
The political dimensions of the 1997-99 Asian financial crisis have been largely ignored. Yet political factors are crucial to understanding the crisis and the differing ways in which the democracies and authoritarian regimes in the region responded to it.
