April 1995, Volume 6, Issue 2
Economic Reform and Democracy: Crisis and Opportunity in Africa
Read the full essay here.
51 Results
Gus Van Sant
Summer 1991, Volume 2, Issue 3
Reconstituting South Africa
A review of A Democratic South Africa? Constitutional Engineering in a Divided Society, by Donald L. Horowitz.
Fall 1990, Volume 1, Issue 4
South Africa’s Future: Symposium—Conservative Party
Read the full essay here.
Summer 1990, Volume 1, Issue 3
Third World Communism in Crisis: Reform Runs Aground in Vietnam
Read the full essay here.
April 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2
Elections Without Democracy: Africa’s Range of Regimes
Today, Africa south of the Sahara has a relatively small number of both democracies and full-blown dictatorships,along with a large number of hard-to-define regimes that fit neither category.
April 1999, Volume 10, Issue 2
Regime Change in Africa
Review of Democratic Experiments in Africa: Regime Transitions in Comparative Perspective, by Michael Bratton and Nicolas Van de Walle
October 2021, Volume 32, Issue 4
Democratic Support, Populism, and the Incumbency Effect
A Europe-wide study shows that those who back the incumbent are more likely to oppose democratic norms. The effect is strongest among those who favor right-wing populists.
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
Democratization by Elections? Opposition Weakness in Africa
Due to weak opposition parties and presidential dominance, many African countries have not reaped the full benefits of regularly held elections.
October 2007, Volume 18, Issue 4
Latin America’s Indigenous Peoples
Where indigenous peoples constitute a smaller share of the electorate, their recent inclusion denotes a more generalized opening of the political system to excluded and vulnerable sectors of society.
April 2022, Volume 33, Issue 2
Why Democracy Fuels Conspiracy Theories
Conspiracy theories are not the sole preserve of dictatorships, but a global phenomenon. Worse, the political competition that is inherent to democracy is driving the spread of lies, fake schemes, and half-truths.
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
Democratization by Elections? A Mixed Record
Evidence suggests that under some circumstances repeated elections, even if flawed, can lead to democratization.
January 2018, Volume 29, Issue 1
Alfred C. Stepan (1936–2017)
A tribute in remembrance of Alfred C. Stepan (1936–2017).
January 2012, Volume 23, Issue 1
Between Authoritarianism and Democracy
A review of Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War by Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way.
October 2007, Volume 18, Issue 4
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: a communiqué adopted at a postelection Nigerian civil society summit; a report from Abuja from IFES Deputy Director Nathan Dusen; an open letter issued by Chinese human rights defenders before the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games.
July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3
Documents on Democracy
Maria Sarungi Tsehai refuses to be silent; Ekrem İmamoğlu’s letter from prison; a Venezuelan opposition leader’s final message before his arrest; a 19-year-old Russian dissident’s final court statement; Dominican protesters and journalists march for freedom of the press; and the Tiananmen Mothers remember the massacre.
July 1998, Volume 9, Issue 3
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: imprisoned Chinese dissident Wang Dan’s first press conference; the Declaration of Santiago; “Strategic Initiatives of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: Fundamentals for a New Beginning”; speeches on “Human Rights and Asian Values” given at the 54th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights; a postelection statement by Martin Lee, leader of the…
July 2024, Volume 35, Issue 3
Documents on Democracy
Georgian Luka Gviniashvili on protesting the foreign-agent bill; a speech by Evgenia Kara-Murza to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe; an Iranian rapper denounces Toomaj Salehi’s death sentence; Carl Gershman on Mário Soares and the fiftieth anniversary of Portugal’s Carnation Revolution; a Ugandan political prisoner’s court-martial hearing; María Corina Machado wins the Global…
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
Documents on Democracy
A Ukrainian human-rights lawyer on moral responsibility during war; Nilofar Shidmehr’s poem “Say Her Name: Mahsa Jina Amini”; a Cuban prodemocracy activist vows to never give up; Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Belarus’s sham election; a Zimbabwean journalist turns himself in to police; the frontlines of the protests in Georgia; and an open letter to Xi Jinping.
January 2018, Volume 29, Issue 1
Fighting Terrorism: The Democracy Advantage
Despite worries that terror groups can turn open societies’ very openness against them, the numbers reveal that liberal democracies enjoy significant advantages in resisting the threat of terrorism.