July 2021, Volume 32, Issue 3
Latin America Erupts: Peru Goes Populist
Instead of ending the instability that has seen the country have four presidents in three years, Peru’s presidential election has left the country on a razor-thin edge.
2983 Results
July 2021, Volume 32, Issue 3
Instead of ending the instability that has seen the country have four presidents in three years, Peru’s presidential election has left the country on a razor-thin edge.
Later this month the country will be holding an absolutely pivotal election. The stakes? Whether Georgia will remain anchored to the West or become Vladimir Putin’s newest satellite state.
Appendix – How Much Democratic Backsliding
October 2018, Volume 29, Issue 4
Colombian voters turned against the architects of the peace accord ending the country’s decades-old internal war, while giving the presidency to a lieutenant of ex-president Uribe, the agreement’s leading opponent.
July 2013, Volume 24, Issue 3
The Putin regime, having faced its first real challenge in the form of mass protests after the 2011 Duma elections, is responding with a series of laws intended to intimidate its civil society opposition, if not stamp it out altogether.
April 2016, Volume 27, Issue 2
Even though Burma’s military seems to have accepted the NLD’s stunning election victory, it can still use an array of constitutional provisions to hamstring the incoming NLD government.
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
Like all contemporary nondemocratic systems, the Chinese system suffers from weak legitimacy at the level of regime type. The most likely form of transition for China remains the model of Tiananmen, when three elements came together: a robust plurality of disaffected citizens, a catalytic event, and a split in the leadership. Had China chosen the…
January 2024, Volume 35, Issue 1
Advanced AI faces twin perils: the collapse of democratic control over key state functions or the concentration of political and economic power in the hands of the few. Avoiding these risks will require new ways of governing.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
The impulse to have crimes against humanity investigated and punished, like the impulse behind “truth and reconciliation” commissions, is understandable. But legalism cannot supersede the hard and messy work of politics.
January 2014, Volume 25, Issue 1
Communism is gone, but while it was alive and in power it bred profound moral pathologies that still haunt the region.
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
The military is currently showing signs of wanting to back away from overt political involvement, but this should not be confused with a rejection of praetorianism or an acceptance of the principle of civilian supremacy.
July 2019, Volume 30, Issue 3
Three decades after sub-Saharan Africa joined the “third wave,” democracy’s ability to endure has been established in many countries, but its quality remains a grave concern.
October 2015, Volume 26, Issue 4
How did a potent Islamist movement come to accept a non-Islamist constitution? The answer lies in that movement’s self-protective reflexes.
April 2012, Volume 23, Issue 2
Despite a rocky first term, Peronist President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner saw her popularity rebound, leading to a huge reelection victory in 2011. Why is Peronism still the dominant “brand” in Argentine politics, and how has she come to own it so thoroughly?
October 2024, Volume 35, Issue 4
Some liberals attribute the origins of our polarized political era to “identity politics.” But multiculturalism need not provoke majoritarian anxieties — not if national identities can open ways for all citizens to be recognized and heard.
July 2013, Volume 24, Issue 3
The Arab world’s old autocracies survived by manipulating the sharp identity conflicts in their societies. The division and distrust that this style of rule generated is now making it especially difficult to carry out the kind of pact-making often crucial to successful democratic transitions.
January 2005, Volume 16, Issue 1
Like many other world-government bodies, the International Monetary Fund is a necessarily nondemocratic organitzation that cannot help but have an impact on democracy’s prospects in poorer countries.
April 2006, Volume 17, Issue 2
There was nothing inevitable about the unraveling of Soviet communism. The role played by individuals such as Aleksandr Yakovlev was crucial.
July 2019, Volume 30, Issue 3
Following the settlement of the revolutionary conflicts that long plagued the region, the left was able to reach power through elections. But the results have been discouraging.
April 2008, Volume 19, Issue 2
Africa is a battleground between formal democratic institutions and rule by the will of the "big man." Civil society groups are waging this struggle, and technology is equipping them with surprising new tools.