How Tragedy Sparked a Protest Movement
Serbs from all walks of life have had enough with their corrupt, inept, and increasingly authoritarian government. Will Serbia’s president be able to withstand the crisis?
1068 Results
2019 USDOJ USDA public service award recipient
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
The End of History Revisited
Is liberal democracy the endpoint of history? The ongoing democratic recession, growing disaffection among citizens, and rising populism pose new challenges to this view. Yet testing Francis Fukuyama’s much-criticized thesis requires us to consider not only liberal democracy’s internal contradictions, but also those of its authoritarian rivals.
April 1995, Volume 6, Issue 2
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: the “Plan of Action” of the Summit of the Americas; the inaugural speech Mozambican president Joaquim Alberto Chissano; appeals for reform of the National People’s Congress by democracy advocates in China; a speech by former U.S. ambassador to Kenya Smith Hempstone.
July 1996, Volume 7, Issue 3
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui’s inaugural address; a ten-point declaration of a summit of more than a dozen Nigerian prodemocracy groups; an “Inter-American Convention Against Corruption”; resolutions adopted by Burma’s National League for Democracy.
Election Results—June and July 2024
Reports on elections in Belgium, Bulgaria, the European Union, France, Iran, Mauritania, Mongolia, San Marino, and the United Kingdom.
Spring 1990, Volume 1, Issue 2
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: the victory speech of Nicaraguan presidential candidate Violeta Barrios de Chamorro; South African president F.W. de Klerk’s speech opening Parliament; the platform of Lithuania’s pro-independence Sajudis movement.
July 2012, Volume 23, Issue 3
The Spirit of Aung San Suu Kyi
A review of The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi by Peter Popham.
January 2013, Volume 24, Issue 1
Building Democratic Militaries
A review of The Soldier and the Changing State: Building Democratic Armies in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas by Zoltan Barany.
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: Charter 08, an open letter calling for a political system in China based on human rights and democracy; an ECOWAS statement condemning the military coup in Guinea; the inauguration speech of new Ghanaian president John Evans; statements issued commending the conduct of Iraq’s January 31 provincial elections.
October 2002, Volume 13, Issue 4
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: Egyptian sociologist and prodemocracy activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim’s written statement; the Arab Human Development Report; UN Development Program Administrator Mark Malloch Brown’s address launching the 2002 Human Development Report; Columbian president Alvaro Uribe Vélez’s inaugural address; Chair of the African Union (AU) and South African president Thabo Mbeki’s speech at the inauguration of…
July 1995, Volume 6, Issue 3
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: a petition by forty-five prominent Chinese intellectuals calling for increased political tolerance; the inaugural speech of Julio María Sanguinetti, the president of Uruguay; remarks by You Ching, country magistrate of Taipei, Taiwan.
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
Beyond Performance: Why Leaders Still Matter
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?
July 2014, Volume 25, Issue 3
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: the inaugural address of Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko; “My Ideals and the Career Path I Have Chosen,” an autobiographical essay by by Ilham Tohti; a speech given by Chinese lawyer and civil-rights activist Chen Guangcheng to mark the impending twenty-fifth anniversary of the massacre at Tiananmen Square.
July 2016, Volume 27, Issue 3
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: a letter by Thich Quang Do, Supreme Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and a leading human-rights advocate, to U.S. president Barack Obama; a declaration by prominent Latin American political leaders and activists calling for political and social opening in Cuba; the inaugural address of Taiwan’s new president Tsai Ing-wen.
January 1998, Volume 9, Issue 1
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng’s opening statement; Chinese president Jiang Zemin’s statement; Organization of American States Charter amendment; Iranian president Mohammad Khatami’s inaugural address; National Endowment for Democracy president Carl Gershman’s keynote conference speech.
July 1998, Volume 9, Issue 3
India Defies the Odds: Why Democracy Survives
India has long baffled theorists of democracy. Democratic theory holds that poverty, widespread illiteracy, and a deeply hierarchical social structure are inhospitable conditions for the functioning of democracy. Yet except for 18 months in 1975-77, India has maintained its democratic institutions ever since it became independent of Britain in 1947. Over those five decades, there…
July 1998, Volume 9, Issue 3
Second Elections in Africa
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…
July 2008, Volume 19, Issue 3
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: “Twelve Suggestions for Dealing with the Tibet Situation,” by 29 Chinese intellectuals; a speech given by European Commission president José Manuel Barroso at the formal launch of the European Foundation for Democracy through Partnership; the “State of the Nation” address delivered by the Movement for Democratic Change’s presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai; International Committee…
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
Election Watch
Reports on elections in Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Belarus, Bolivia, Botswana, Dominica, Guinea-Bissau, Kiribati, Kosovo, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Poland, Romania, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uruguay, Uzbekistan.
January 2021, Volume 32, Issue 1
Election Watch
Reports on elections in Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burma, Côte d’Ivoire, Georgia, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Moldova, Seychelles, Tanzania.