October 2004, Volume 15, Issue 4
The Quality of Democracy: Addressing Inequality
Democracy requires robust political equality, but the persistence of social, economic and cultural inequality complicates its realization.
1927 Results
October 2004, Volume 15, Issue 4
Democracy requires robust political equality, but the persistence of social, economic and cultural inequality complicates its realization.
October 2004, Volume 15, Issue 4
The notion that the Muslim world as a whole does not suffer from a deficit in terms of competitive democracy is apealing, but rests on evidence and assumptions that cannot withstand critical scrutiny.
October 2004, Volume 15, Issue 4
Surveys show that Africans’ commitment to democracy fades over time, but also that their support can be refreshed by alternations in power via elections.
July 2004, Volume 15, Issue 3
Russia's liberal-democratic parties have failed. It is time for a new movement that can gain the trust of the Russian people by putting forward a full reform program based on liberal and democratic principles.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
Uganda’a move to a multiparty system is really a maneuver by President Yoweri Museveni to prolong his stay in power beyond the two-term limit mandated by the constitution.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
In an exchange of letters, leading Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya discusses with Vaclav Havel the lessons that the Czechoslovak experience offers to Cubans seeking a democratic transition in thier own country.
October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
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
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.
July 2003, Volume 14, Issue 3
Gauging electoral competitiveness relative to economic development reveals not only that Arab countries “underperform” but, strikingly, that non-Arab Muslim-majority countries tend to “overperform.”
July 2003, Volume 14, Issue 3
The decaying trajectory of democratization in South Africa represents a kind of settlement failure, resulting for the main parties in the transition having come to the table with incompatible cultural paradigms of negotiation.
April 2003, Volume 14, Issue 2
An “Islamic Reformation” is not a necessary condition for the emergence of democracy in the Muslim world; what is most needed is a political reformation.
April 2003, Volume 14, Issue 2
If they are to understand Islam authentically and to embrace the modern world freely, Muslims must take a new attitude toward their traditions of interpretation.
April 2003, Volume 14, Issue 2
Invited to join the European Union next year, the Czech Republic has a weak governing coalition that faces deep challenges at home.
April 2003, Volume 14, Issue 2
The recent election of political outsider Lula da Silva as president is a sign of hope for the future of democracy in Brazil.
April 2003, Volume 14, Issue 2
What can public-opinion research tell us about the staying power of democracy in the region? Has it passed the point of any possible return to authoritarianism?
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
Successful institutionalization will help the regime survive the pressures of advanced modernization and integration with the global economy.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
The Chinese state has become more efficient, constrained, and responsive—improvements that could lay a base for a successful transition.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
Class politics is an ever more important reality, but the growth of capitalism is not likely to produce pressures for democratization.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
After a decade of partial liberalization begun by the late King Hussein, freedoms are now being rolled back by an anxious regime.
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.