October 2004, Volume 15, Issue 4
The Quality of Democracy: The Chain of Responsiveness
Responsiveness may be conceived as a series of linkages intended to ensure that governments respect the preferences of the governed.
Region: Comparative Theoretical General
October 2004, Volume 15, Issue 4
The Quality of Democracy: A Skeptical Afterword
Asking what makes a good democracy is a noble and sensible enterprise, but it will always point beyond the borders of empirical political science.
July 2004, Volume 15, Issue 3
World Religions and Democracy: Judaism and Political Life
Today, Jews the world over are closely and correctly associated with liberal democracy. What are the wellsprings of Jewish tradition and commitment that feed this association?
July 2004, Volume 15, Issue 3
The Perils of Identity Politics
Three leading French political thinkers reflect on why modern democracies tend to forget their own natures, even to the point of encouraging an assertive "identitarianism" that could undermine liberal democracy itself.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
The Anti-American Century?
The twentieth century has been called "the American century," but it appears that the twenty-first may be dominated by anti-Americanism, an all-purpose ideology that poses a serious obstacle to the progress of democracy.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
The Imperative of State-Building
Weak or failed states are at the root of many serious global problems, from poverty and AIDS to drug trafficking and terrorism, to the failure of democratic government itself. State-building must become a priority for the world community.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
Christianity and Democracy: The Catholic Wave
Long wary of the modern state as such, the Roman Catholic church became a champion of democratic government around the time of Vatican II, and helped to set off the Thrird Wave of democratization.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
Christianity and Democracy: The Pioneering Protestants
Historical and other evidence from around the world suggests that Protestantism has helped to create a web of mediating factors—from higher literacy to lower corruption to active civic groups—that encourage self-government.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
Christianity and Democracy: The Ambivalent Orthodox
Orthodoxy’s difficult historical experiences have made it ambivalent toward democatic pluralism, but that may be changing, with believers in established democacies leading the way.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
Christianity and Democracy: The Global Picture
That modern democracy first arose with the ambit of Western Christianity is far from an accident. Today, the major Christain communions largely support democracy, even while necessarily retaining the right to criticize democratic decisions in the name fo religious truth claims.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
Constitution-Making After Conflict: Lessons for Iraq
A through, deliberat, and consultative constitution-making process, which takes account of key lessons learned in other countries, will be essential to the legitimacy of a new Iraqi constitution and to the future of democracy.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
Constitutional Design for Divided Societies
Constitution writers in ethnically or otherwise divided countries should focus on designing a system of power-sharing rules and institutions. Studies by political scientists point to a set of basic recommendations that should form a starting point for constitutional negotiations.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
Ousting the “Final 45”
A review of Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025 by Mark Palmer.
January 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1
Europe Moves Eastward
The Editors’ introduction to “Europe Moves Eastward.”
January 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1
Europe Moves Eastward: Challenges of EU Enlargement
As it prepares to go from 15 to 25 member states, the EU has improved the prospects for democracy in the East, but nothing about enlargement promises to resolve the vexing issue of democracy within the EU structure itself.
January 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1
Europe Moves Eastward: Consolidating Free Government in the New EU
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the involvement of NATO and the EU with their prospective new members has worked strongly in favor of democratic governance in Central and Eastern Europe.
January 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1
Europe Moves Eastward: Beyond the New Borders
By expanding itself eastward, the EU has not so much settled the questions surrounding the “borders” of Europe as it has displaced them, changing their focus to take in new areas and new issues.
January 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1
Europe Moves Eastward: Concluding Reflections
The fall of the Berlin Wall gave East Europeans a euphoric sense that they were about to give European democacy a new direction. But as many of their countries prepare to join the EU, little has worked out as expected in those heady days.
January 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1
The 2003 Freedom House Survey: National Income and Liberty
Despite the threats posed by terrorism, 2003 saw a second consecutive year of significant momentum of freedom, and showed encouraging evidence that political rights and civil liberties can endure despite economic privation.
January 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1
Research Report: Does Diversity Hurt Democracy?
It has been claimed in the pages of this journal that a homogeneous society is an advantage when it comes to democratization. How might this suggestion be empirically tested, and with what (perhaps preliminary) results?
October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
Making Sense of the EU: The Achievements of the Convention
Building democracy at the supernational level is an unprecedented task, but so once was building democracy at the level of the modern state. And the progress of the EU in the last half-century has been remarkable.
October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
Making Sense of the EU: Democracy in Europe and Europe’s Democratization
Europe faces a potentially dangerous “double bind”: The legitimacy of domestic democracy in the member states is waning, and citizens are increasingly unhappy with the EU’s lack of accountability—but the new draft Constitution fails to address the problem.
October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
Making Sense of the EU: Toward a Cosmopolitan Europe
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
Making Sense of the EU: The Challenge for Democracy
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
Electoral Systems: A Primer for Decision Makers
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
Can Democracy Be Taught?
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
The Illusion of Liberal Autocracy
A review of The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad by Fareed Zakaria.
October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
Toward a Science of Ethnic Conflict?
A review of The Deadly Ethnic Riot by Donald L. Horowitz and Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India by Ashutosh Varshney.
July 2003, Volume 14, Issue 3
Political Freedom, Economic Liberty, and Prosperity
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
Democracy, Dictatorship, and Infant Mortality Revisited
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.
April 2003, Volume 14, Issue 2
The Cracked Foundations of the Right to Secede
The claim that ethnic minorities have a moral and legal right to secede from states is a dangerous fiction with perilous implications for divided societies.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
The 30th Anniversary Freedom House Survey: Liberty’s Advances in a Troubled World
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 30th Anniversary Freedom House Survey: Modern Democracy as a System of Separations
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
Financing Politics: A Global View
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
Flogging a Dead God?
A review of Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism by Joshua Muravchik.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
Debating the Transition Paradigm: In Partial Defense of an Evanescent “Paradigm”
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
Debating the Transition Paradigm: The Democratic Path
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
Debating the Transition Paradigm: Retaining the Human Dimension
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
Debating the Transition Paradigm: Tilting at Straw Men
A leading democracy specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development defends his organization’s approach.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
Debating the Transition Paradigm: A Reply to My Critics
The author of “The End of the Transition Paradigm” responds to each of his critics in turn.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
The Balkans: Democracy Without Choices
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
Democracy in Real Time
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
Middle East Studies After 9/11: An Exit from Arab Autocracy
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
Thinking Big
A review of Arguing Comparative Politics by Alfred Stepan.
April 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2
Elections Without Democracy: Thinking About Hybrid Regimes
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 Without Democracy: The Menu of Manipulation
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
Elections Without Democracy: The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism
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 Look at Federalism: The Import of Institutions
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
A New Look at Federalism: Electoral Rules and Governability
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
Electoral Systems for Divided Societies
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
The End of the Transition Paradigm
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 2001 Freedom House Survey: Muslim Countries and the Democracy Gap
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
Public Opinion and Direct Democracy
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
Defying the Odds
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
Bringing Democracy into International Law
The evidence clearly points to the growing incorporation into international law of the right to democratic governance.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
Women and Democracy: Regional Differences and Contrasting Views
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
Women and Democracy: Cultural Obstacles to Equal Representation
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
Two Models of Democracy
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
Rediscovering Culture
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
Political Competition and Economic Growth
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
The 2000 Freedom House Survey: Gains Offset Losses
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
Politics and Development
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
Religion, Democracy, and the “Twin Tolerations”
Are all, or only some, of the world’s religious systems politically compatible with democracy?
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
Comparing East Asia and Latin America: Stirrings of Mutual Recognition
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
Comparing East Asia and Latin America: Dimensions of Development
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
Comparing East Asia and Latin America: Capital Mobility and Democratic Stability
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
Nurturing Nationalism
A review of Jack Snyder's From Voting to Violence.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
Markets, Law, and Democracy
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
Is Pakistan the (Reverse) Wave of the Future?
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
Democracy, Dictatorship, and Infant Mortality
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
Explaining Communism’s Appeal
A review of Francois Furet's last book, The Passing of an Illusion.
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
Democracy in the World— Tocqueville Reconsidered
The Editors’ introduction to “Democracy in the World.”
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
The March of Equality
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
The Judiciary and the Rule of Law
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
The Indispensability of Political Parties
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
From the Press to the Media
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
Civil Society and the “Art of Association”
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
Lawyers and Liberal Democracy
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
The Challenge of an Asymmetrical World
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
Democracy’s Triumph, Philosophy’s Peril
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
The Cultural Challenge to Individualism
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
The Perils of Prosperity
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
Compassion and the Softening of Mores
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
Women, Equality, and the Family
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
The End of Revolution?
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
Did Tocqueville Foresee Totalitarianism?
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
The 1999 Freedom House Survey: A Century of Progress
July 1999, Volume 10, Issue 3
From Liberalism to Liberal Democracy
January 1999, Volume 10, Issue 1
The Decline of Illiberal Democracy
October 1998, Volume 9, Issue 4
The Dynamics of Democratic Exclusion
October 1998, Volume 9, Issue 4
Liberalism of Sorts
A review of After 1989: Morals, Revolution, and Civil Society, by Ralf Dahrendorf.
July 1998, Volume 9, Issue 3
Party Systems in the Third Wave
July 1998, Volume 9, Issue 3
Horizontal Accountability in New Democracies
April 1998, Volume 9, Issue 2
What is Democratic Consolidation?
April 1998, Volume 9, Issue 2
Surveying Postmaterialism
A review of Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies, by Ronald Inglehart.
January 1998, Volume 9, Issue 1
Democracy and Utopia
January 1998, Volume 9, Issue 1
Ethnic Conflict and the “Generosity Moment”
January 1998, Volume 9, Issue 1
Mediating Elections
January 1998, Volume 9, Issue 1
A Solid Smorgasbord
A review of Democracy’s Victory and Crisis, edited by Axel Hadenius.
October 1997, Volume 8, Issue 4