After Crackdown, Is Turkey an Autocracy?
Turkey’s president would rather turn his country into a full autocracy than give up power. But the Turkish people are clinging to what remains of their democracy, and they are ready to fight for it.
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Electoral Reform Society charter 2025 'good governance charter'
October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4
AI’s Real Dangers for Democracy
Artificial intelligence and its effects on democracy are a matter of choice, not fate. The concerns are longer term than the recent spate of worry about “generative” AI would suggest. The democratic conversation about AI has hardly begun.
October 2023, Volume 34, Issue 4
Documents on Democracy
A final statement by Russian activist and opposition politician Alexei Navalny; The North Atlantic Council’s communiqué on Ukraine; Legal analyst Ethan Hee-Seok’s testimony on North Korean asylum-seekers at the China–North Korea border; “Voices of a New Belarus” by playwright Andrei Kureichik; Guatemalan president-elect Bernardo Arévalo’s victory speech.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from a United Nations report on the feasibility of early elections and possible alternatives in Iraq; an inaugural address by Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili delivered in Tbilisi on January 25; a letter signed by more than 100 reformist Iranian parliamentarians criticizing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for approving the Guardian Council disqualification of more…
April 2016, Volume 27, Issue 2
Latin America’s New Turbulence: Mexico’s Stalled Reforms
The long-ruling PRI staged a comeback in 2012 behind a young president touting a reformist agenda, but Enrique Peña Nieto’s early successes have been eclipsed by government underperformance and a continued failure to restore public security.
July 2015, Volume 26, Issue 3
Rwanda: Progress or Powder Keg?
Rwanda under Paul Kagame has been hailed for its visionary leadership, economic progress, and reforms in education, health, and agriculture. Yet the regime’s autocratic rule, human-rights abuses, persecution of the Hutu majority, and growing inequality point to an ominous future.
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
The Rise of Legislative Authoritarianism
Democratic backsliding is usually seen as something driven by presidents, but under certain circumstances elected legislatures can cause it, too. Legislative hegemony is a growing danger.
January 2006, Volume 17, Issue 1
Burundi’s Transition: Training Leaders for Peace
Burundi's leaders are learning to embrace a culture of discussion and consensus that offers a way out of the abyss of civil war.
South Africa’s Watershed Election
The ANC lost its majority for the first time, but populist forces were held at bay.
July 2018, Volume 29, Issue 3
Explaining Eastern Europe: Imitation and Its Discontents
For countries emerging from communism, the post-1989 imperative to “be like the West” has generated discontent and even a “return of the repressed,” as the region feels old nationalist stirrings and new demographic pressures.
Why Slovakia Is Rising Up in Protest
The people have taken to the streets to demonstrate against corruption and Prime Minister Robert Fico’s pro-Moscow policies. Once again, Slovaks see their future in Europe, not Russia.
January 2016, Volume 27, Issue 1
The Quest for Good Governance: Georgia’s Break with the Past
Much can be done to uproot graft when a major event such as the Rose Revolution sweeps in a determined new team on a wave of massive public support.
Why Georgia’s Democracy Is Collapsing
The ruling party is growing more repressive as it draws from Vladimir Putin’s playbook. If the opposition is to push back successfully, they must first unify.
January 2017, Volume 28, Issue 1
Documents on Democracy
Prime Minister Theresa May on the U.K. vote to leave the European Union; former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright on Václav Havel; joint statement by U.S. representatives Peter J. Roskam (R-Ill.) and David Price (D-N.C.) on the threat of corruption.
October 2004, Volume 15, Issue 4
Philippine Politics and the Rule of Law
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s election as president in her own right capped a campaign that spoke well of Philippine democracy, but yawning gaps in the rule of law obstruct the road to consolidation.
July 2016, Volume 27, Issue 3
Delegative Democracy Revisited: Brazil’s Accountability Paradox
Latin America’s largest country has managed vastly to enlarge the share of its citizens who can take part in politics and need no longer live in poverty, and has robust horizontal accountability to boot. Vertical accountability, however, has suffered.
April 1995, Volume 6, Issue 2
Economic Reform and Democracy: Crisis and Opportunity in Africa
Read the full essay here.
April 1995, Volume 6, Issue 2
Economic Reform and Democracy: The Politics of Safety Nets
Read the full essay here.
April 2008, Volume 19, Issue 2
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: Kosovo’s Declaration of Independence from Serbia; U.K. foreign secretary David Miliband’s speech, “The Democratic Imperative”; the power-sharing agreement between the Kenyan president and opposition leader; “Pakistan’s Tipping Point” by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party.