July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
Personalizing Power in Uganda
For more than two decades, President Yoweri Museveni has been building an authoritarian regime that answers closely to his personal will.
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Journal of Consciousness Studies "Volume 29" "Issue 2" 2022 "machine consciousness"
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
The Democracy Barometers (Part I)
The Editors’ introduction to the first of two clusters on “The Democracy Barometers.”
April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
The 2006 Freedom House Survey: The Pushback Against Democracy
Although the overall state of democracy in the world differed little from that in 2005, a series of worrisome trends seem to be contributing to a stagnation of freedom.
October 2006, Volume 17, Issue 4
Favorable Conditions and Electoral Revolutions
Over the past decade, a series of "electoral revolutions" has taken place from Slovakia to Kyrgyzstan. Why has this path to democratization been especially common in the postcommunist region?
October 2006, Volume 17, Issue 4
A “Left Turn” in Latin America? Problems of Success in Chile
Chile's new Socialist president Michelle Bachelet will seek to maintain the country's socioeconomic progress, but her attempt to cure growing alienation from the traditional parties could create a new set of problems.
October 2006, Volume 17, Issue 4
Belarus: Learning From Defeat
The Belarusian presidential election of March 2006 appeared to be an exercise in meaninglessness, while the protests against manipulation by the Lukashenka regime seemed a study in futility. But appearances can deceive.
July 2006, Volume 17, Issue 3
Reforming Intelligence: Democracy and Effectiveness
Reforming national intelligence communities is a critical, if often overlooked, task facing democratizing countries. Happily, intelligence agencies brought under civilian, democratic control may also becomes better at their core job of protecting free nations from deadly threats.
April 2006, Volume 17, Issue 2
Electoral Systems Today: The Curious Case of Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s electoral system is both unusual and unsuited to the country’s political circumstances. How was it chosen and what are its effects on the country’s politics?
April 2006, Volume 17, Issue 2
Electoral Systems Today: The Politics of Reform in Japan and Taiwan
For decades, Japan and Taiwan elected their legislatures using the single nontransferable vote. Recently, however, both countries adopted new electoral systems. What explains this trend?
April 2006, Volume 17, Issue 2
Azerbaijan’s Frustrating Elections
The 2005 elections were marked by massive fraud, but the democratic world mostly looked the other way. Azerbaijani society remains receptive to democracy, but the regime clearly has other plans—and will soon have massive oil wealth to fund them.
January 2006, Volume 17, Issue 1
Getting to Arab Democracy: What Do Iraqis Want?
There is a widespread desire for democracy among the Iraqi public, but when it comes to the roles of religion, ethnicity, and gender equality in Iraq's new democracy, attitudes are more varied.
January 2006, Volume 17, Issue 1
Getting to Arab Democracy: Dealing with Communalism
Whether ethnic, sectarian, or some combination of the two, communalsim is one of the massive realities of Middle Eastern life and politics. It is usually seen as an obstacle to democracy, but need that always be the case?
January 2006, Volume 17, Issue 1
Getting to Arab Democracy: The Promise of Pacts
Strategies based on transition pacts that reduce rulers' risks and cushion their retreat from total power may be the most promising route to democracy in the Arab world.
January 2006, Volume 17, Issue 1
Russia: Authoritarianism Without Authority
Vladimir Putin has pulled the plug on democracy in Russia in an effort to strengthen the authority of the central state. But a look at Russian federal relations shows that the state is growing weaker rather than stronger.
April 2005, Volume 16, Issue 2
Challenge and Change in East Asia: Facing the Perils of Presidentialism
Juan Linz’s 1990 critique of presidentialism in these pages was based largely on the Latin American experience. In the last few years, however, four new Asian democracies have encountered presidential crises. Does Linz’s work hold the secret to what has been ailing these regimes?
January 2005, Volume 16, Issue 1
The IMF and Democratic Governance
Like many other world-government bodies, the International Monetary Fund is a necessarily nondemocratic organitzation that cannot help but have an impact on democracy’s prospects in poorer countries.
October 2004, Volume 15, Issue 4
Debate: The Reality of Muslim Exceptionalism
The notion that the Muslim world as a whole does not suffer from a deficit in terms of competitive democracy is apealing, but rests on evidence and assumptions that cannot withstand critical scrutiny.
July 2004, Volume 15, Issue 3
Russian Democracy in Eclipse: The Next Generation
Hopes for democratization now rest on the shoulders of the young. Who are they, what do they believe, and what are their political leanings? Survey data offer some clues.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
Christianity and Democracy: The Global Picture
That modern democracy first arose with the ambit of Western Christianity is far from an accident. Today, the major Christain communions largely support democracy, even while necessarily retaining the right to criticize democratic decisions in the name fo religious truth claims.
October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
Making Sense of the EU: Toward a Cosmopolitan Europe
The EU represents an opportunity not only to fashion a postnational welfare state capable of responding to a postnational economy, but to lay a groundwork that will ultimately make possible a global domestic policy.