July 2003, Volume 14, Issue 3
Africa: States in Crisis
Democratic and ecnomic development will become sustainable in sub-Saharan Africa only with the emergence of coherent, legitimate and effective states.
2777 Results
Democracy in Retrograde pdf download
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
The 30th Anniversary Freedom House Survey: Liberty’s Advances in a Troubled World
The largely positive trends indicated in this year’s Freedom House Survey encourage cautious optimism on the occasion of its thirtieth anniversary.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
The Deadlock in Iran: Constitutional Constraints
The vast obstacles to democratic reformism include basic provisions in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic itself.
January 2002, Volume 13, Issue 1
The Weakness of Postcommunist Civil Society
Recent studies suggest that civil society in the postcommunist countries is significantly weaker than in other types of democracies, old or new. Can this legacy of communism be overcome? If not, what are the implications for democracy?
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
Francophone Africa in Flux: Mali’s Decade of Democracy
Since 1992, Mali has managed to preserve its democracy in the face of great odds. Continued vigilance will be needed, however, to prevent the gains of the past decade from slipping away.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
The Instinct for Freedom
The mass protests that have taken place in 2019 in Hong Kong and elsewhere show that people’s desire for liberty cannot be extinguished.
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…
April 2008, Volume 19, Issue 2
Trends in Democracy Assistance: What Has the United States Been Doing?
Democracy assistance has been a growing priority for the United States since the end of the Cold War. The record shows that its focus goes well beyond elections and other procedural dimensions of democracy.
April 2017, Volume 28, Issue 2
The 2016 U.S. Election: Can Democracy Survive the Internet?
Traditional intermediary institutions such as parties and the legacy media are not what they once were, and they are not coming back. What are the implications of new social media and digital-campaign techniques?
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
The Shadow of the Swedish Right
The rising, far-right Sweden Democrats keep doing better in Swedish elections. They are now the country’s second-largest party, and their influence on Swedish political life has never been greater.
April 2017, Volume 28, Issue 2
Southeast Asia: Voting Against Disorder
Rodrigo Duterte’s rise to the presidency of the Philippines reflects a broader trend in Southeast Asia of voters favoring politicians who elevate order above law. What does the history of “voting against disorder” in Indonesia and Thailand imply for the future of democracy in the Philippines?
July 2014, Volume 25, Issue 3
Russia’s Nationalists Flirt with Democracy
Russia has witnessed a growing rapprochement between some of its nationalists and some of its democrats, but this trend is threatened by divisions over the annexation of Crimea.
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
NATO at Sixty
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization played a key role in safeguarding Western democracy during the Cold War. With that conflict over, NATO must continually adapt and evolve in a fast-changing world.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
Exchange: Liberalism versus State-Building
In certain circumstances, both liberalism and popular rule can obstruct rather than promote state-building.
July 2017, Volume 28, Issue 3
The Pipe Dream of Undemocratic Liberalism
A look at liberal democracy’s complex historical evolution shows that elite fantasies of liberalism without democracy are ill-founded. Authoritarian legacies and democratic deficits lie at the core of trends that threaten liberal rights.
July 1998, Volume 9, Issue 3
Octavio Paz (1914-1998)
The death of Mexican poet and essayist Octavio Paz on April 20 was (in the words of Mexico’s president Ernesto Zedillo) “an irreplaceable loss for contemporary thought and culture—not just for Latin America but for the entire world.” Born in Mexico City on 31 March 1914, Paz published his first book of poetry while still…
July 2023, Volume 34, Issue 3
Why Israeli Democracy Is in Crisis
When Israel’s new government introduced proposals that threatened the judiciary’s independence, the country erupted in protest. These tensions will not soon end. Likud, once a center-right party, is now as populist as the European far right.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
Trouble in the Advanced Democracies? The End of Consensus in Austria and Switzerland
With Austria’s and Switzerland’s leading political parties having “rigged the political marketplace” by forming Grand Coalitions, voters have turned to the radical right as the only available alternative.
April 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2
Elections Without Democracy: The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism
In recent years, new types of nondemocratic government have come to the fore, notably competitive authoritarianism. Such regimes, though not democratic, feature arenas of contestation in which opposition forces can challenge, and even oust, authoritarian incumbents.
April 2022, Volume 33, Issue 2
The Freedom House Survey for 2021: Authoritarians on Offense
In 2021, autocrats’ efforts to reshape the global order enabled heavier repression and brazen power grabs, while democracies faltered. Is this a tipping point?