2116 Results
Venezuela’s opposition defeated Nicolás Maduro in the country’s July presidential election, but the Venezuelan strongman refuses to relinquish power. The Journal of Democracy essays below, free for a limited time, chronicle Venezuela’s struggle against Maduro’s authoritarianism — and what makes this election different.
Bitcoin is an indispensable tool for political dissidents in the most repressive environments, argue Alex Gladstein and Félix Maradiaga in two recent Journal of Democracy online exclusives. When dictators weaponize the financial system and obstruct all avenues of dissent, digital currency helps activists keep their operations running.
In the days ahead, the West must remain calm—and redouble its support for Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Georgia’s Parliament passed a controversial new law that would brand NGOs and media organizations receiving foreign funding as “foreign agents.” Countries across the globe are following the Russian model and painting liberal-democratic values as malign foreign interference. Read about the strategies autocrats are devising to repress civil society and stifle dissent.
Organized criminal groups in Latin America have money, firepower, and a stranglehold on political life — making them incredibly difficult to defeat. How can countries in the region curb the violence and revive democracy?
Mexico’s president recently signed into law a series of reforms that bulldoze the country’s judicial system and eviscerate democratic checks on executive power. Amrit Singh and Gianmarco Coronado Graci explain why this is even worse than it seems.
Burma’s democratic resistance has made impressive gains against the country’s corrupt junta. But they need help from the world’s democracies if they are to succeed and create an enduring peace.
His military didn’t just fail. Ordinary Ukrainians, Russians, and people across the globe are creatively and nonviolently protesting Putin’s war on Ukraine, and they are making a difference.
The Economist cited Charles H. Fairbanks, Jr., and Alexi Gugushvili’s Journal of Democracy article on Georgia’s 2012 parliamentary elections.
January 23, 2013
The Washington Post’s Dan Balz surveys Persily’s analysis, published in the April 2017 Journal of Democracy, of how groundbreaking shifts in the sphere of online media and communications are affecting the political environment.
April 25, 2017
In a special exchange appearing only on our website, distinguished scholars Amy C. Alexander and Christian Welzel; Pippa Norris; and Erik Voeten offer critiques of the July 2016 and January 2017 articles by Roberto Stefan Foa and Yascha Mounk. A reply from Foa and Mounk follows.
August 8, 2017
Drawing on his October-issue contribution “Latin America’s Shifting Politics: The Lessons of Bolivia,” Jean-Paul Faguet explains why the collapse of Bolivia’s party system may offer “an analytical window into the future” for Western countries.
January 15, 2019
In an interview with The Signal and a Foreign Policy piece based on his April article in the Journal, Christian Welzel argues that the global shift toward democratic values runs deeper than today’s autocratic upswell.
Nilay Saiya, whose essay “Why Freedom Defeats Terrorism” appeared in our April issue, argues in a Slate piece based on his article that civil liberties—not crackdowns—are the key to preventing terrorism.
In an essay for Foreign Policy based on his article for the January issue of the Journal, James Loxton shows how one of Latin America’s most unequal and corrupt states is also one of its freest and wealthiest.
January 28, 2022
Coartar la libertad económica es uno de los primeros objetivos de un tirano. Mi familia y yo hemos experimentado esto de primera mano. Sin embargo, herramientas como Bitcoin ofrecen una esperanza a los activistas que luchan contra los estados represivos.
