January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1
A Reply to Our Critics
The authors identify and respond to four broad themes in the Climate Crisis debate.
1928 Results
January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1
The authors identify and respond to four broad themes in the Climate Crisis debate.
January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1
The country’s outgoing president relentlessly attacked Mexico’s democratic institutions, taking it to the brink of authoritarianism. His successor is poised to push its democracy over the edge.
January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1
Nicolás Maduro brazenly stole Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election, despite a free, fair, and transparent ballot count that showed a clear opposition victory. Why would an autocrat want to maintain one of the world’s best voting systems?
April 2023, Volume 34, Issue 2
The staggering global popularity of soccer makes it a prime target for regimes that worry about the negative press they get for their undemocratic practices. The Gulf monarchies have led the way in getting into the wide world of sports as a means of cleaning their image.
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
Everything we know about getting and keeping democracy suggests we should be, at best, cautious about the prospects for Syria’s democratic future. But, as this collection of essays suggests, there are reasons for hope.
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
Democracy across the world is being undermined by the very forces that once made it possible: the liberal economic order and political competition. The global concentration of wealth has made democratic governance less effective and stripped the people of their power.
January 2018, Volume 29, Issue 1
Central African autocrats are using their stolen money to outmaneuver opponents and deflect international criticism.
July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3
Syria is a rare case. A state being governed by a new elite that is committed to Islamic thought but open to a wide range of intellectual influences. While it is early, we may see the rise of a novel brand of Islamic presidentialism in the works.
July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3
Bolivia’s Amazon forests are becoming scorched earth, with millions of acres lost each year to raging fires. Worse, this disaster is being caused by a government more interested in corrupt profits than protecting its people and wildlife.
July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3
Turkey’s democratic future hinges on its opposition parties doing something few expected: winning elections in unfair conditions. Yet the opposition’s strong performance in local elections suggests that they may be putting together a winning formula for Turkey and beyond.
July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3
Authoritarian regimes are not lawless. Rather, autocrats take to the courtroom not only to enforce their will but to justify their rule. So how do they appeal to reason? How do they rationalize their undemocratic turn?
October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4
When Israel’s democratic safeguards came under attack, Israeli political scientists felt they had a duty to spread a shared, nonpartisan understanding of the dangers of democratic backsliding. Here is how they organized, built channels of communication, and reached the public.
October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4
When the Soviet Union fell, Cuba did not democratize but instead was turned into a raw kleptocracy by Communist Party insiders. Decades later, this “mafia” has driven the country into the worst crisis in its history.
July 1994, Volume 5, Issue 3
Reports on elections in Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Hungary, Malawi, Panama, South Africa, Tunisia, Ukraine.Â
Thailand’s current crisis may finally end the cycle of populism and polarization that has crippled its democratic aspirations. But it is also revealing that there are far worse forces undermining Thai democracy.
April 2017, Volume 28, Issue 2
A review of What Is Populism? by Jan-Werner Müller.
April 2016, Volume 27, Issue 2
A review of Making Waves: Democratic Contention in Europe and Latin America Since the Revolutions of 1848 by Kurt Weyland.
October 1994, Volume 5, Issue 4
Reports on elections in Barbados, Belarus, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Mexico, Panama, Sri Lanka, Ukraine.Â
April 2016, Volume 27, Issue 2
Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador are weighed down by high crime, sluggish economies, and heavy reliance on remittances. And when significant political change has taken place, it has resulted in frightening political fragmentation.
October 2015, Volume 26, Issue 4
Can decentralization deepen democracy or is it doomed to weaken the state? If well designed, decentralization can have a positive impact on national unity, conflict mitigation, policy autonomy, service delivery, and social learning.