April 2018, Volume 29, Issue 2
Iran’s Exclusionary Republic
A review of Democracy in Iran: Why It Failed and How It Might Succeed by Misagh Parsa.
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January 2022, Volume 33, Issue 1
Democracy’s Arc: From Resurgent to Imperiled
Whether democracy regains its footing will depend on how democratic leaders and citizens respond to emboldened authoritarians and the fissures within their own societies.
January 1992, Volume 3, Issue 1
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: a UN Third Committee Resolution on the human rights situation in Burma; Organization of American States (OAS) Resolution 1080; an OAS resolution Haiti; the inaugural speech of Zambian president Chiluba ; Russian president Boris Yeltsin’s; the “Agreement on the Creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States; “Fundamental Principles for the Establishment of Peace in…
October 2021, Volume 32, Issue 4
Carl Gershman and the Struggle for Democracy
The National Endowment for Democracy’s founding president made enormous contributions to the fight for freedom and human rights. Reflections on what his 37-year tenure meant for the democratic cause—and this journal.
April 2022, Volume 33, Issue 2
Subversion Inc: The Age of Private Espionage
International spying and digital subversion used to be the province of governments. Now anyone who has the cash can order hi-tech snooping and surveillance. This is a threat to the future of freedom.
July 2024, Volume 35, Issue 3
Misunderstanding Democratic Backsliding
If democracies did a better job “delivering” for their citizens, so the thinking goes, people would not be so ready to embrace antidemocratic alternatives. Not so. This conventional wisdom about democratic backsliding is seldom true and often not accurate at all.
January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1
When Should the Majority Rule?
With illiberal forces ascendant across the globe, protecting individual liberties and the democratic process is crucial. But when institutions empower minority groups over the majority, can democracy survive?
October 2018, Volume 29, Issue 4
Review Essay: Why Tunisia?
A review of Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly by Safwan M. Masri.
October 2023, Volume 34, Issue 4
How AI Threatens Democracy
Generative AI can flood the media, internet, and even personal correspondence, sowing confusion for voters and government officials alike. If we fail to act, mounting mistrust will polarize our societies and tear at our institutions.
January 2013, Volume 24, Issue 1
Controlling Corruption Through Collective Action
Political competition by itself does not curb corruption. Societies must also have a combination of values, social capital, civil society, and civic culture in order to impose effective normative constraints on corruption.
July 2017, Volume 28, Issue 3
India’s Democracy at 70: Growth, Inequality, and Nationalism
Of late, Indian democracy has been confronted with a new political economy. Strong economic growth over the last three decades has generated the world’s fourth-largest collection of dollar billionaires and the third-largest middle class, both for the first time in Indian history, while still leaving the single largest concentration of the poor behind. In a…
April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
Another Russia? Battling KGB, Inc.
The Putin regime is plunging Russia into a deepening crisis. It is time to end the fiction that today's Russia is a democracy.
October 2014, Volume 25, Issue 4
External Influence and Democratization: The Revenge of Geopolitics
Advancing the democratic cause is threatening to autocrats, and they will fight back.
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Georgia’s Year of Turmoil
A domestic political crisis began brewing in Georgia long before the current conflict with Russia. Since the Rose Revolution, the country has been troubled by flawed elections, a “superpresidency,” and a malleable constitution.
January 2013, Volume 24, Issue 1
Arab Democracy or Islamist Revolution?
Although Olivier Roy and others argue that current circumstances will push ascendant Islamist parties in a democratic direction, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood remains committed to the revolutionary goals that have animated it since its beginnings.
October 2012, Volume 23, Issue 4
European Disintegration? A Fraying Union
Contrary to the expectations of some democratic theorists, the EU will not collapse because of the “democratic deficit” of European institutions. Nor will it be saved by the democratic mobilization of civil society. Paradoxically, it is widespread disillusionment with democracy—the shared belief that national governments are powerless in the face of global markets—that may be…
April 2006, Volume 17, Issue 2
New Threats to Freedom: Democracy’s “Doubles”
From Putin's Russia to Chávez's Venezuela, regimes that claim to be democracies but act like autocracies are emerging as a major long-term threat to freedom.
April 2013, Volume 24, Issue 2
Democratization Theory and the “Arab Spring”
In light of the “Arab Spring,” how should students of democratic transition rethink the relation between religion and democracy; the nature of regimes that mix democratic and authoritarian features; and the impact of “sultanism” on prospects for democracy?
January 2017, Volume 28, Issue 1
The Signs of Deconsolidation
Political scientists have long assumed that “democratic consolidation” is a one-way street, but survey evidence of declining support for democracy from across the established democracies suggests that deconsolidation is a genuine danger.
July 2013, Volume 24, Issue 3
Latin America’s Authoritarian Drift: The Threat from the Populist Left
The left-populist authoritarianism that is taking hold across a swath of Latin America bears many resemblances to the rightist populism that was once widespread in the region. There are signs, however, that the leftist variant will be an even bigger problem for liberal democracy. Listen to the podcast.