October 2009, Volume 20, Issue 4
Escaping the Development Impasse
A review of Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places by Paul Collier.
1289 Results
October 2009, Volume 20, Issue 4
A review of Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places by Paul Collier.
January 1999, Volume 10, Issue 1
Read the full essay here.
October 1995, Volume 6, Issue 4
Read the full essay here.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
Often recommended as a means of ending intractable civil wars, power-sharing may in fact be least likely to work when it is most needed.
July 2005, Volume 16, Issue 3
The role of international factors varied greatly across the post-Cold War transitions to democracy, but the intensity and results of external democratizing pressure depended on two variables: linkage to the West and Western leverage.
July 2018, Volume 29, Issue 3
Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party has used its two-thirds majority in parliament to change the constitution, erase checks and balances, and make the electoral system even more majoritarian.
July 2014, Volume 25, Issue 3
Despite the spirit of participation that characterized the Maidan, organized civil society groups were not a key factor.
October 2009, Volume 20, Issue 4
As countries emerge from war and embark on recovery, the risk of corruption is high and the consequences are dire. International aid must be accompanied by an anticorruption strategy that incorporates community-driven accountability.
July 2003, Volume 14, Issue 3
A review of "Ending Civil Wars: The Implementation of Peace Agreements" Edited by Stephen John Stedman, Donald Rothchild, and Elizabeth M. Cousens.
January 2002, Volume 13, Issue 1
After September 11 and the start of the U.S.-led war on terrorists in Afghanistan, the Pakistani military regime of Pervez Musharraf found itself at the center of world attention. What do these new and dramatically changed circumstances portend for a possible return to elected, civilian rule in Islamabad?
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
After the collapse of the Assad regime, Syria stands at a crossroads. Nothing is assured, but the country’s civil society is its best hope for charting a democratic future.
April 2017, Volume 28, Issue 2
In 2016, established democracies figured prominently on the list of countries experiencing declines in freedom, while emboldened autocracies stepped up their repression at home and interference abroad.
January 2008, Volume 19, Issue 1
Five years after the close of a horrifying civil war, Sierra Leone held the freest elections in its history. Voters turned out the party that had overseen the war's end, blaming it for having mishandled governance since then.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
Since the early 1990s, many African countries have undergone political liberalization, and so far this trend has been accompanied by a significant drop in the incidence of military coups.
January 2002, Volume 13, Issue 1
The United Nations did superb work in helping Mozambique to end its long-festering civil war and start down the path to recovery, but those gains could slip away amid ominous conditions of partisan polarization, excessive political centralization, and a winner-takes-everything electoral system.
The forces that brought Erdoğan to power may be his downfall in Turkey’s May 14 elections. Here are a selection of key Journal of Democracy essays from the last two decades of his rule.
July 2011, Volume 22, Issue 3
After decades of civil war, Sudan is set to divide into two nations on 9 July 2011. Yet a number of explosive issues—including the drawing of borders and sharing of oil revenue—have still not been resolved, and the prospects for peace appear to be dimming.
July 2019, Volume 30, Issue 3
Within Ukraine, Russia’s 2014 invasion has generated unprecedented pressures to impose restrictions on speech. While international norms allow some censorship during wartime, some of Ukraine’s new media and cultural policies raise risks not only for its democracy, but for its security as well.
January 2015, Volume 26, Issue 1
The system of personalized power that has long ruled Russia now faces a new crisis, and it is trying to avert decay through the reassertion of empire.