October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
The EU represents an opportunity not only to fashion a postnational welfare state capable of responding to a postnational economy, but to lay a groundwork that will ultimately make possible a global domestic policy.
October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
The EU was founded partly for the purpose of strengthening democracy, but it has been created in a way that is intrinsically not democratic.
October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
The rules that govern voting will always be of vital importance in any democracy. The beginning of wisdom is to turn from the usual focus on electoral systems in order to reflect on larger goals and the trade-offs among them that may be necessary.
October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
Civic education can enhance democratic values and participation among adults in young democracies, but the training must be frequent and participatory. Otherwise adult civic education may not be worth doing.
October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
A review of The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad by Fareed Zakaria.
July 2003, Volume 14, Issue 3
Liberty and self-government are not only good in themselves, but also have powerful and beneficial effects on a nation’s level of economic development and prosperity.
July 2003, Volume 14, Issue 3
New data covering most of the 1990s reveal that democracy, even when minimally defined, has a potent independent impact that tends to reduce infant mortality and promote overall social well-being.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
The largely positive trends indicated in this year’s Freedom House Survey encourage cautious optimism on the occasion of its thirtieth anniversary.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
The “system of separations” is a historic achievement that must be defended even against normatively “purer” understandings of democracy.
October 2002, Volume 13, Issue 4
Though it is a burning issue in many countries, the question of money and politics is seldom studied on a worldwide scale.
October 2002, Volume 13, Issue 4
A review of “Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism” by Joshua Muravchik.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
The coauthor of the seminal work on democratic transitions sets the record straight on what the scholarly literature actually says.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
The notion of countries being on the “path to democracy” remains valid unless and until they come up with a systemic alternative to democracy.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
Democracy promotion is a cause-oriented mission, but a good deal of hard-headed realism goes into program planning and work.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
A leading democracy specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development defends his organization’s approach.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
The author of “The End of the Transition Paradigm” responds to each of his critics in turn.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
The gravest challenges facing democracy in the Balkans are problems not of ethnicity or postcommunism, but of citizen disaffection and disillusionment.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
Globalization has fostered the spread of “democracy as procedure,” but it is much less favorable to the spread of “democracy as culture.”
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
While many experts recommend postponing democratization pending the rise of a middle class, a directly political strategy may well be better.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
A review of “Arguing Comparative Politics” by Alfred Stepan.
April 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2
Many countries have adopted the form of democracy with little of its substance. This makes the task of classifying regimes more difficult, but also more important.
April 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2
Elections, usually taken to be a hallmark of democracy,can also become a tool of authoritarian powerholders seeking to legitimate their rule.
April 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2
In recent years, new types of nondemocratic government have come to the fore,notably competitive authoritarianism.Such regimes, though not democratic,feature arenas of contestation in which opposition forces can challenge,and even oust,authoritarian incumbents.
April 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2
A new research project suggests that federalism enhances the ability of regimes to accommodate territorially based minorities. Federal systems, except when imposed by an outside power, significantly help to preserve the peace.
April 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2
The effects of electoral systems and of federalism are usually examined separately, but a review of the leading federations shows that it is essential to consider the interaction between the two in designing democratic institutions.
April 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2
Political scientists have long theorized that the use of “preferential” election systems can help promote successful conflict management in divided societies. As it turns out, evidence from five real-world cases supports this conclusion.
January 2002, Volume 13, Issue 1
Must countries where authoritarian regimes have fallen therefore be "in transition" to democracy? Many democracy promoters seem to think so. Yet trends on the ground in country after country are raising doubts about whether it is true or useful to think of democracy's prospects in this way.
January 2002, Volume 13, Issue 1
The year 2001 saw modest gains in the strengthening and consolidation of democracy worldwide, but in predominantly Muslim countries-especially the Arab states-the status of freedom and democracy lags far behind the rest of the world.
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
Direct democracy has come in for praise as being closer to the people’s will than representative democracy. A closer look at the sources of public support, however, reveals some surprises.
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
A review of "Building the Rule of Law: Francis Nyalali and the Road to Judicial Independence in Africa." By Jennifer A. Widner.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
The evidence clearly points to the growing incorporation into international law of the right to democratic governance.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
An increase in women’s political mobilization has accompanied the global trend toward democratization, but women’s movements have taken diverse paths in different regions of the world.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
A country’s level of female political representation cannot be explained solely in terms of socioeconomic factors and political institutions. The evidence shows that political culture also matters.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
A review of “Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries, ” by Arend Lijphart; and “Elections as Instruments of Democracy: Majoritarian and Proportional Views,” by G. Bingham Powell, Jr.
April 2001, Volume 12, Issue 2
A review of Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress, edited by Lawrence E. Harrison and Samuel P. Huntington.
January 2001, Volume 12, Issue 1
Under many nondemocratic systems, good policy is bad politics, and bad policy helps leaders stay in office. The result is poorer performance in terms of economic growth.
January 2001, Volume 12, Issue 1
Promising advances in the status of freedom in the world during the past year have been matched by significant disappointments.
January 2001, Volume 12, Issue 1
A review of "Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-being in the World 1950-1990." By Adam Przeworski, Michael E. Alvarez, Jose Antonio Cheibub, and Fernando Limongi.
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
Are all, or only some, of the world’s religious systems politically compatible with democracy?
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
Global trends toward economic and political liberalization are presenting East Asian and Latin American democracies with increasingly convergent international opportunities and constraints.
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
Such a comparison clearly shows a higher prevalence of democracy in Latin America and a better economic performance in East Asia. The two regions are likely to converge on both dimensions, but the gaps will remain.
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
Despite the persistent doomsaying about the political consequences of untrammeled international capital flows, financial liberalization may actually contribute to democratic consolidation.
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
A review of Jack Snyder's From Voting to Violence.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
The experience of “bandit capitalism” or “tyrant capitalism” in postcommunist societies shows that markets cannot work properly without a community of trust and mutual respect. Such a community can be achieved only where there is a rule of law, applied by able and independent judges.
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.
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
A review of Francois Furet's last book, The Passing of an Illusion.
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
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January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
July 1999, Volume 10, Issue 3
January 1999, Volume 10, Issue 1
October 1998, Volume 9, Issue 4
October 1998, Volume 9, Issue 4
A review of After 1989: Morals, Revolution, and Civil Society by Ralf Dahrendorf
For almost a decade, Freedom House’s annual survey has highlighted a decline in democracy in most regions of the globe. Some analysts say this shows that the world has entered a "democratic recession." Others dispute that interpretation, emphasizing democracy’s success in maintaining the huge gains it made during the last quarter of the twentieth century.
