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Viktor Orbán, a proud advocate for “illiberal democracy,” has become a favorite of the far-right by using the tools of democracy against democracy. His secret? Restructuring Hungary’s political playing field in favor of his ruling party, effectively locking in his power with the force of law.
Autocrats rely on propaganda and censorship to manipulate public opinion and maintain control. Journalists, activists, and the public must work together to counter media manipulation and keep press freedom alive.
Many derided it as naïve idealism, but the vision undergirding the Freedom Agenda offers lessons for the biggest global tests of our time.
Our most-read essays of 2023 covered the state of India’s democracy, Russia’s war on Ukraine, the protests in Iran, and more.
When María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month, she made sure to emphasize that her accomplishments were not hers alone — they were shared with countless other activists agitating for democracy in Venezuela.
Hungary’s prime minister has been jet-setting across the globe to hobnob with Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Donald Trump, while doing his best to provoke European leaders at home. But Orbán’s grandstanding, argues Hungarian writer Sándor Ésik in a new Journal of Democracy online exclusive, is really just an attempt to mask his growing political weaknesses.
DeepSeek’s new frontier AI model is the CCP’s most powerful tool yet for surveillance and control. The following Journal of Democracy essays show how authoritarian governments leverage emerging tech to enhance repression. Read free for a limited time.
With democracy in trouble across the globe, it’s easy to forget how and why a steady succession of dictatorships fell in the last half of the twentieth century. Democracy’s strengths, and its record, should give cause for hope at a moment when autocracy appears ascendent.
In her recent piece for the Monkey Cage blog, Victoria Tin-bor Hui discusses what the sentencing of Umbrella Movement leaders means for those struggling for democracy in Hong Kong. Read her article on the Umbrella Movement protests from the April 2015 JoD, free of charge through May 24.
At the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage, read Alence and Pitcher’s take on South Africa’s 8 May 2019 national elections, and stay tuned for an expanded analysis in the October 2019 JoD. Plus, read Alence’s 2004 Journal article (free through May 31) for a deeper look into the history of South Africa’s democracy.
On International Women’s Day 2024, the Journal of Democracy celebrates the achievements of all women and highlights the transformative power of women’s political participation and activism.
Belarusians headed to the polls this past Sunday to vote for president, but the outcome is a foregone conclusion: Long-reigning autocrat Alyaksandr Lukashenka has rigged the playing field to guarantee a seventh term.
China’s Twentieth Party Congress opened this week in Beijing. President Xi Jinping is widely expected to cement his position as Chinese Communist Party leader for an unprecedented third term.
Activists are fighting for democracy’s freedoms across the globe. They do so at tremendous personal risk, facing arrest, imprisonment, and the fear they will never see their loved ones again. Read the inspiring words of former political prisoners from Tunisia, Russia, Egypt, China, Malaysia, and Burma.
Yesterday, Journal of Democracy founding coeditor Larry Diamond delivered the twentieth annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World, named for one of the great scholars of the twentieth century. In his remarks, Diamond outlined the grave threats that global democracy faces—and the three things we need to survive this moment.
There’s a fine line between genuine cybersecurity and digital authoritarianism. Many autocrats use the pretext of digital order to surveil, silence, and suppress their citizens. State cyber repression creates a climate of fear around social media and the internet, shrinking one of the last remaining spaces for free speech.
The international drug trade has ravaged Latin America. Drug cartels and organized crime groups have grown powerful enough in some countries to infiltrate and even challenge the power of the state. As demand for drugs and profits soars, violence, death, and displacement rain down upon communities, leaving democracy and the economy in shambles.
On Sunday, Hondurans voted for their next president and vice-president, members of Congress, and municipal mayors. But the country’s vote-tally system failed.
China’s efforts to sway the Taiwanese people with conspiracy theories and lies are starting to resonate, undermining their faith in democracy and deepening polarization. In a new Journal of Democracy online exclusive, Tim Niven argues that defending against China’s information war will require tireless resistance from the whole of society.
