JoD Online

December’s Most-Read Essays

As 2024 draws to a close, democracy faces urgent threats: increasing aggression from Russia and China, rapidly advancing AI, heightened polarization, and populist leaders in India and elsewhere bending democracy to their will. Here are the Journal of Democracy’s ten most-read essays over the past month.

The JoD on a Podcast Near You!

Journal of Democracy essays go beyond the page. Here are five recent podcasts featuring JoD authors discussing their essays with historians, journalists, students, and democracy scholars. Listen, read, and learn!

Minxin Pei’s Top Ten Greatest Hits

Minxin Pei, a leading expert on Chinese authoritarianism, has been writing for the Journal of Democracy since 1992. Over three decades, the Claremont McKenna political scientist has chronicled China’s transformation into a global superpower and descent into neo-Stalinism. The following ten essays comprise some of Pei’s best.

Is Democracy a Crime in Hong Kong?

On November 19, a Hong Kong court sentenced 45 prominent prodemocracy activists to years in prison in the biggest crackdown yet under the city’s draconian, Beijing-imposed National Security Law. The Journal of Democracy essays below, free for a limited time, detail Hong Kong’s decades-long fight for freedom, and the CCP’s unrelenting repression.

Is Bitcoin Good for Democracy?

Bitcoin is an indispensable tool for political dissidents in the most repressive environments, argue Alex Gladstein and Félix Maradiaga in two recent Journal of Democracy online exclusives. When dictators weaponize the financial system and obstruct all avenues of dissent, digital currency helps activists keep their operations running.

What Comes Now?

The biggest election in this “year of elections” is finally over. In contests across the world, voters have spoken. But what do their choices tell us about the state of democracy globally?