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July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3

The Authoritarian Argument

Authoritarian regimes are not lawless. Rather, autocrats take to the courtroom to not only enforce their will but to justify their rule. So how do they appeal to reason? How do they rationalize their undemocratic turn?

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July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3

Religious Exclusion and the Origins of Democracy

The most challenging type of diversity for democracy is religious diversity. This also helps explain why modern democracy first took root in Western Europe: Religiously homogenous populations went hand in hand with the early formation of parliaments.

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July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3

Bolivia’s Silent Destruction

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.

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July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3

The Philippines’ Dynastic Democracy

Midterm elections saw unprecedented voter participation, especially among the young, but the country’s politics are being held hostage by the bitter struggle between the Marcos and Duterte clans. The polarizing fight is taking a toll on the Philippines’ democracy, with no end in sight.

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July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3

What Kind of State for Syria?

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.

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July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3

The Islamic Republic’s War on Iranians

Iran’s theocracy has waged a brutal campaign against its own citizens for years. Now that the Woman, Life, Freedom movement has stripped the regime of any legitimacy, the mullahs have had no response but to sharpen their instruments of repression.

July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3

Documents on Democracy

Maria Sarungi Tsehai refuses to be silent; Ekrem İmamoğlu’s letter from prison; a Venezuelan opposition leader’s final message before his arrest; a 19-year-old Russian dissident’s final court statement; Dominican protesters and journalists march for freedom of the press; and the Tiananmen Mothers remember the massacre.

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July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3

Tanzania’s Autocratic Reform-Washing

President Samia Suluhu Hassan came into office promising democratic reforms. Four years later, it is clear she is more of a performer than a reformer. Far from delivering on her promises to unwind Tanzania’s authoritarian machinery, she is relying on the repressive tools we know so well.

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July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3

Secularism, Islamism, and the Future of Turkey

The political struggle between President Erdoğan and opposition leader Ekrem İmamoğlu is a fierce battle for the country’s democracy. But it goes deeper than that. It is also a struggle between Islamist and secularist visions of Turkey.

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July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3

How to Fight Turkey’s Authoritarian Turn

As President Erdoğan’s grip on power is slipping, his regime is turning more repressive. But Turkey may still avoid becoming a full-blown autocracy. The opposition is increasingly popular, and there remains a way to tilt the playing field to their advantage.

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Online Exchange on “Democratic Deconsolidation”

In July 2016 and January 2017, the Journal of Democracy published two articles on “democratic deconsolidation” by Roberto Stefan Foa and Yascha Mounk. These essays not only generated a great deal of commentary in the media, but also stimulated numerous responses from scholars focusing on Foa and Mounk’s analysis of the survey data that is at the heart of their argument.…

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“The Journal of Democracy is far and away the most important forum for current debates about the nature and spread of liberal democracy around the world, and an indispensable tool for anybody interested in comparative politics or international relations. It is a model for how to present serious intellectual content in a clear and accessible…

JoD Audio Interviews

Journal of Democracy contributors talk with Managing Editor Brent Kallmer about the articles in the Journal, which is published by Johns Hopkins University Press for the National Endowment for Democracy.   Adrienne LeBas Adrienne LeBas discusses her essay “A New Twilight in Zimbabwe? The Perils of Power Sharing​” from the April 2014 issue of the Journal of Democracy.…

The Top Ten Most-Read Essays of 2021

In 2021, democracy’s fortunes were tested, and a tumultuous world became even more turbulent. Democratic setbacks arose in places as far flung as Burma, El Salvador, Tunisia, and Sudan, and a 20-year experiment in Afghanistan collapsed in days. The world’s democracies were beset by rising polarization, and people watched in shock as an insurrection took…