January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
The Fear of Shrinking Numbers
Illiberalism can drive away a country’s young people, and with them the future.
2778 Results
Democracy in Retrograde pdf download
January 2012, Volume 23, Issue 1
Corruption in India: Can the Right to Information Help?
India’s Right to Information Act discourages corruption by giving every citizen the right to access information from any public authority.
July 1999, Volume 10, Issue 3
Democracy as a Universal Value
The recognition of democracy as a universally relevant system is a major revolution in thinking, and one of the main contributions of the twentieth century. While not yet universally practiced, democracy is now being taken as generally right.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
The Democracy Barometers (Part I): Formal versus Informal Institutions in Africa
Survey data indicate that Africans support democracy and its formal institutions, but also point to the importance of the informal realm, particularly when formal institutions fail to meet popular expectations.
January 2005, Volume 16, Issue 1
The Referendum in Venezuela: Elections versus Democracy
While charges of electronic fraud in the actual voting or vote-counting are unproven, the dubious and even illegal tactics that the Chavez regime used throughout the larger process point to rampant "institutional fraud" that is undermining Venezuelan democracy.
October 2002, Volume 13, Issue 4
Democratization in the Arab World?: Emirs and Parliaments in the Gulf
How well-founded are Western concerns that the nascent parliaments of Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain will be captured by antidemocratic Islamists and lead to the ‘Talibanization’ of the Gulf?
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
In Europe, Democracy Erodes from the Right
When ordinary voters are given a choice between democracy and partisan loyalty, who will put democracy first? Frighteningly, Europe harbors a deep reservoir of authoritarian potential.
April 2020, Volume 31, Issue 2
The Freedom House Survey for 2019: The Leaderless Struggle for Democracy
In 2019, the global democratic recession deepened, while protest movements proliferated around the world, fighting largely without leaders or support from major democracies.
April 2008, Volume 19, Issue 2
The 2007 Freedom House Survey: Is the Tide Turning?
Authoritarian pushback continued to affect key regions and countries in 2007, but the courage, energy, and creativity that democrats continued to show gives reason to think that their cause has brighter days ahead.
July 2004, Volume 15, Issue 3
Curbing Central America’s Militaries
Since the end of the Cold War, Central America has seen a regionwide diminution of military influence that bodes well for democratic governance and healthier civil-military relations.
July 2014, Volume 25, Issue 3
Gay Rights: Why Democracy Matters
The year 2013 featured unprecedented strides for gay rights in some parts of the world, particularly in Western Europe and the Americas, but also startling setbacks elsewhere, as in Russia and some countries in Africa.
July 2004, Volume 15, Issue 3
Russian Democracy in Eclipse: What the Polls Tell Us
The first flush of democratic hopes has faded, as the recent elections have emphasized. But the democratic idea has a foothold, and the presidential machine that swept those elections will not have an easy time retaining its sway.
October 2022, Volume 33, Issue 4
The Politics of Enemies
Democracy’s meaning has always been contested. Letting that struggle become a battle between existential foes risks upending the whole democratic project.
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…
Appendix – How Much Democratic Backsliding
Appendix – How Much Democratic Backsliding
October 2012, Volume 23, Issue 4
European Disintegration? The Sources of Extremism
The EU is experiencing a somewhat paradoxical phenomenon: On the one hand, it has been a tremendously successful club, promoting democracy and open societies within its borders and in its neighborhoods. On the other hand, the language of national rivalry and of class struggle is re-entering public discourse, especially within the eurozone.
October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
Can Democracy Be Taught?
Civic education can enhance democratic values and participation among adults in young democracies, but the training must be frequent and participatory. Otherwise adult civic education may not be worth doing.
January 2021, Volume 32, Issue 1
Why Strongmen Win in Weak States
While analysts of populism have focused on economic woes and “cultural backlash,” a thirst for the restoration of order may better explain the appeal of authoritarian populists in fragile democracies where governance is falling short.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
30 Years of World Politics: What Has Changed?
Democracies are grappling with an era of transformation: Identity is increasingly replacing economics as the major axis of world politics. Technological change has deepened social fragmentation, and trust in institutions is falling. As our most basic assumptions come under question, can liberal democracy rebuild itself?
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?