January 2016, Volume 27, Issue 1
Transition Leaders Speak
A review of Democratic Transitions: Conversations with World Leaders, edited by Sergio Bitar and Abraham F. Lowenthal.
1044 Results
BA 1993 Routledge 2013 CV university
July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3
Can Capitalism Save Democracy?
Capitalism is often blamed for democracy’s ills. But much of the blame is misplaced. It is not business capture of the state but rather state capture of business that poses the greatest danger to democracy.
July 2017, Volume 28, Issue 3
India’s Democracy at 70: The Impact of Instant Universal Suffrage
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 1992, Volume 3, Issue 2
Election Watch
Reports on elections in Algeria, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Malta.
April 2014, Volume 25, Issue 2
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: The statement that Chinese rights activist Xu Zhiyong read at his January 22 trial for gathering a crowd to disrupt public order, for which he received a four-year prison sentence. The March 4 statement issued by former presidents Oscar Arias (Costa Rica), Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Brazil), Ricardo Lagos (Chile), and Alejandro Toledo (Peru) on the deteriorating…
January 2019, Volume 30, Issue 1
Bolsonaro and Brazil’s Illiberal Backlash
The triumph of far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s October 2018 presidential election was made possible by a series of economic, social, and political crises that have shaken Brazilian democracy.
October 2017, Volume 28, Issue 4
How Much Democratic Backsliding?
Democracy’s retreat is real, yet alarmist reports of a global demise or crisis of democracy are not warranted.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
Millennials and East Asia’s Democratic Future
East Asia’s millennials have grown up in an age of rapid socioeconomic progress, allowing them to become better educated, more urbanized, and more technologically connected than previous generations. Will they use their collective power to become agents of democratic change?
July 2014, Volume 25, Issue 3
The Maidan and Beyond: The Russia Factor
The regime of Vladimir Putin has been a key driver of the crisis in Ukraine. Under challenge at home for several years now, it turned to Ukraine in part to firm up its own grip on power in Russia.
April 2014, Volume 25, Issue 2
A New Twilight in Zimbabwe? The Perils of Power Sharing
After four years of sharing power with the opposition, Zimbabwe’s longtime president Robert Mugabe and his party claimed a huge victory in the 2013 elections. What accounts for the opposition’s stunning electoral decline?
April 2014, Volume 25, Issue 2
Shifting Tides in South Asia: Renewed Hope in Pakistan?
Long prone to coups, Pakistan now for the first time has seen a freely elected government duly serve out its full term and peacefully hand the reins of power to another.
April 2014, Volume 25, Issue 2
Shifting Tides in South Asia: Tumult in the Maldives
After a brief era of political opening, the authoritarian old guard has ridden a dubiously conducted presidential election back into power.
Why Egypt Is Growing More Unstable Fast
The economy is spiraling, public frustration is mounting, and the regime is becoming more repressive. The next time Egyptians come to the streets, they will be looking for more than promises and free elections.
April 2010, Volume 21, Issue 2
The Ex-Presidents
What makes elected leaders step down at the appointed hour, and what do they have to look forward to once their terms end? A look at the political afterlives of world leaders tells us that the future prospects of presidents and premiers may well affect their behavior while in office.
April 2016, Volume 27, Issue 2
Election Watch
Reports on elections in Benin, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo (Brazzaville), Haiti, Iran, Jamaica, Niger, Samoa, Seychelles, Slovakia, Taiwan, Uganda, Vanuatu.
October 2018, Volume 29, Issue 4
Election Watch
Reports on elections in Cambodia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Pakistan, Rwanda, Swaziland, Turkey, and Zimbabwe.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
Shell Game
Trillions of dollars are stashed in the world’s secret financial system, where they are keeping autocratic regimes afloat and fueling democracy’s decline.
Iran Erupts
Iranians are protesting their regime. Why it will only get worse for the mullahs. | By Peyman Asadzade
January 2021, Volume 32, Issue 1
The Three Faces of the Indian State
India’s Constitution has long seemed stable, but the rise of an ethnic, absolute, and opaque state is changing the constitutional order in momentous and disturbing ways.