82 Results
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
The “third wave” of democracy started in 1974 — or so the story goes. But the crests and crashes of waves of democracy and authoritarianism have been neglected. A close look can help us understand the current moment, when democracy appears to be in retreat.
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.
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
When the “third wave” reached Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s, it brought major advances for democracy. By the first decade of the current century, however, advances had given way to stasis and even erosion.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
Rising levels of wealth and schooling make it highly likely that China will be a "Partly Free" country by 2015 and a "Free" one ten years after that.
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
Delivery matters, but so do leaders’ actions. Why have so many, in both strong and weak economies, been pushing against democratic constraints on their power, and why have those constraints failed to contain them?
January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1
A review of The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared Critic, by Mark L. Clifford.
Turkey’s president would rather turn his country into a full autocracy than give up power. But the Turkish people are clinging to what remains of their democracy, and they are ready to fight for it.
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
Syrians rejoiced when Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell. After decades of dictatorship and civil war, Syrians must now rebuild their country while seeking justice for the victims of authoritarian rule.
January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1
A Hong Kong prodemocracy activist’s statement upon her sentencing; Georgia’s president denounces the election results; Alaa Abd el-Fattah was named Writer of Courage and joint recipient of the 2024 PEN Pinter Prize; an open letter for Xu Zhiyong; and a Nigerian senator condemns the arrests of youth protesters.
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
A Ukrainian human-rights lawyer on moral responsibility during war; Nilofar Shidmehr’s poem “Say Her Name: Mahsa Jina Amini”; a Cuban prodemocracy activist vows to never give up; Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Belarus’s sham election; a Zimbabwean journalist turns himself in to police; the frontlines of the protests in Georgia; and an open letter to Xi Jinping.
January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1
Many pundits cry for a negotiated settlement to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. But they misunderstand Vladimir Putin’s motives. The only just end to the war will be in the trenches, not at the bargaining table.
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
Ukraine versus Russia is a modern David versus Goliath conflict that matters not only for the future of Ukraine, but for that of democracy itself.
January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1
With illiberal forces ascendant across the globe, protecting individual liberties and the democratic process is crucial. But when institutions empower minority groups over the majority, can democracy survive?
January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1
Democracy’s unique, flexible, and substantial resources make it better than authoritarianism at confronting climate change.
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
Voters around the world are losing faith in democracy’s ability to deliver and increasingly turning toward more authoritarian alternatives. To restore citizens’ confidence, democracies must show they can make progress without sacrificing accountability.
January 2021, Volume 32, Issue 1
A decade ago, Arab peoples stood up and sought to replace their rulers with a more democratic political project. But Arab autocrats have a project of their own. Can the people gain ground in the struggle for self-government, or will their rulers bear it away?
October 2014, Volume 25, Issue 4
Excerpts from: Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilve’s speech in Oslo, Norway; Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech; Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán's shocking speech in favor of an “illiberal” state; an open letter by senior members of the Communist Party of Vietnam calling for an end to communism; the inaugural address of Colombian…
October 2024, Volume 35, Issue 4
Political violence is rising in wealthy democracies. Polarized societies and bitter party politics are putting candidates and election officials in serious peril. Political leaders, more than anyone, have the power to stoke or stamp out this dangerous cycle of violence.
January 2022, Volume 33, Issue 1
Whether democracy regains its footing will depend on how democratic leaders and citizens respond to emboldened authoritarians and the fissures within their own societies.
This is the darkest moment for freedom in half a century. Whether democracy regains its footing will depend on how democratic leaders and citizens respond to emboldened authoritarians and the fissures within their own societies.
