3151 Results
July 2017, Volume 28, Issue 3
Read the full essay here. When the authors of India’s Constitution took the extraordinarily bold step of establishing universal suffrage, thus giving the right to vote to all adult citizens, India became the world’s first large democracy to adopt universal adult suffrage from its very inception. We call India’s move “instant universal suffrage,” and distinguish…
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
The secularization hypothesis has failed, and failed spectacularly. We must find a new paradigm to help us understand the complexities of the relationship between religion and democracy.
April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
Malawi is a “hard place” for democracy—its economy struggles and state capacity is weak. So how has it avoided the pitfalls that have doomed so many others?
January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1
Even as Georgia lurches toward autocracy, the country’s pluralism and democratic culture are deepening. What can Georgia’s contradictory trends reveal about democratic resilience?
July 2024, Volume 35, Issue 3
Democracy is on dangerous ground when its fundamental rules become the main point of political contention. This is where we are today. The truth is that the institutions, not just the players, need to change.
July 1998, Volume 9, Issue 3
The early 1990s saw a wave of competitive multiparty elections in Africa. These contests can be described as "founding" elections in the sense that they marked for various countries a transition from an extended period of authoritarian rule to fledgling democratic government. By the middle of the 1990s, this wave had crested. Although founding elections…
October 2013, Volume 24, Issue 4
A review of The Promise of Power: The Origins of Democracy in India and Autocracy in Pakistan by Maya Tudor.
October 1994, Volume 5, Issue 4
Excerpts from: the statement of Wangarí Maathai, the founder and head of the Kenyan Greenbelt Movement; recommendations from the First International Conference on the Peoples of the Arab World and the Middle East and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Minorities.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
Excerpts from: a videotaped message by leader of the National League for Democracy of Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi; remarks and a draft resolution on Cuba from the 56th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights; Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian’s inaugural address; Russian president Vladimir Putin’s inaugural address; a statement from Elena Bonner; the…
January 2018, Volume 29, Issue 1
A review of Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom by Condoleezza Rice.
July 2021, Volume 32, Issue 3
Nayib Bukele has developed a blend of political tactics that combines populist appeals and classic autocratic behavior with a polished social-media brand. It poses a dire threat to the country’s democratic institutions.
Winter 1991, Volume 2, Issue 1
Excerpts from: the Madrid Declaration; Popular Movement of Ukraine (Rukh) party president Ivan Drach’s speech to the Congress; the Charter of Paris.
July 2019, Volume 30, Issue 3
Why do ordinary people vote to return to office undemocratic incumbents? New survey experiments in several countries suggest that many voters are willing to put their partisan interests above democratic principles—a finding that may be key to understanding democratic backsliding.
April 2021, Volume 32, Issue 2
China’s fast economic rise has not dented its dictatorship, but Xi Jinping’s neo-Stalinist strategy has unleashed new challenges and tensions for the Communist Party’s long-term prospects for survival.
October 1996, Volume 7, Issue 4
Excerpts from: testimony delivered at South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; remarks by National Endowment for Democracy president Carl Gershman; remarks delivered at a reception marking the opening of Mongolia’s new parliament.
January 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1
Excerpts from: a November 2003 interview with Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize; a September 2003 speech by Hossein Khomeni, grandson of the founder and Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran; a September 2003 statement issued by Václav Havel, Arpád Göncz, and Lech Wałęsa, former presidents…
October 2004, Volume 15, Issue 4
Excerpts from: incumbent Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s inaugural address; The Doha Declaration for Democracy and Reform issued by a conference in Doha sponsored by Qatar University’s Center for Gulf Studies; speech opening the conference by Qatar’s Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani; inaugural speech by newly elected Serbian president Boris Tadić of the Democratic Party.
October 1999, Volume 10, Issue 4
Excerpts from: the “Sana’a Declaration” and remarks by Yemeni prime minister Abdul Karim Al-Eryani from the Emerging Democracies Forum; Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri’s remarks; remarks from South African president Thabo Mbeki; the “Rio de Janiero Declaration.”
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
Excerpts from: a statement by Cuban dissidents entitled “All United”; a letter by former dissidents of the Soviet bloc to the so-called “Group of Four” critics of the Castro regime in Cuba; an address delivered by the Commonwealth’s outgoing secretary-general Chief Emeka Anayaoku; the “Seoul Statement” on human rights in North Korea; Abdurrahman Wahid’s speech…
October 2005, Volume 16, Issue 4
Excerpts from: speeches commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the “Polish August”; the Bamako Declaration of the African Statesmen Initiative; an open letter in recognition of Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday.
