July 1997, Volume 8, Issue 3
The East Asian Prospect: A “Recipe” for Democratic Development
Read the full essay here.
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authors published in late 1990s references Andres Audic Barbeau bioinformatics
July 2018, Volume 29, Issue 3
Explaining Eastern Europe: Orbán’s Laboratory of Illiberalism
Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party has used its two-thirds majority in parliament to change the constitution, erase checks and balances, and make the electoral system even more majoritarian.
April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: an open letter to Russian president Vladimir Putin in response to the decision to close the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship; a message delivered by Democratic Republic of the Congo president Joseph Kabila acknowledging his victory in the 2006 elections.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
Japan’s Political Transition
In The Logic of Japanese Politics, Gerald Curtis portrays the political history of Japan in the 1990s in its full complexity.
April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
What Went Wrong in Hungary
For a time, Hungary looked like it was on the road to democracy. Viktor Orbán’s success derailing it may teach us how to spot a failing democracy before it is too late.
April 2008, Volume 19, Issue 2
Trends in Democracy Assistance: What Has the United States Been Doing?
Democracy assistance has been a growing priority for the United States since the end of the Cold War. The record shows that its focus goes well beyond elections and other procedural dimensions of democracy.
October 2024, Volume 35, Issue 4
China’s Age of Counterreform
The People’s Republic of China has entered a new age, abandoning the ideological openness of the reform era and the socialist legacy of the revolutionary period. Under Xi Jinping, regime stability trumps all — and the PRC is weaker and less stable as a result.
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
The Authoritarian Origins of the Third Wave
The “third wave” of democracy started in 1974 — or so the story goes. But the crests and crashes of waves of democracy and authoritarianism have been neglected. A close look can help us understand the current moment, when democracy appears to be in retreat.
April 2016, Volume 27, Issue 2
Latin America’s New Turbulence: Crisis and Integrity in Brazil
Public anger at revelations of widespread corruption, along with the rising cost of coalition politics, has brought Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff to the brink of impeachment. Yet the crisis has also revealed the strength of the country’s law-enforcement and judicial institutions.
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 2017, Volume 28, Issue 4
Iran’s 2017 Election: Waning Democratic Hopes
Wrongly viewed by many media sources as a victory for “reform” and “openness,” the recent presidential election in Iran actually reflected the demoralization and disengagement of the country’s prodemocratic opposition.
July 2012, Volume 23, Issue 3
The Surprising Success of Multiparty Presidentialism
Until recently, political scientists argued that democracy had poor chances of survival in a multiparty presidential regime. Latin America’s recent experience tells a different story.
July 2023, Volume 34, Issue 3
Why Russia’s Democracy Never Began
People obsess over where Russia’s democracy went wrong. The truth is it did not fail: Russia’s democratic transition never got off the starting blocks.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
Francophone Africa in Flux: Democratization in Fits and Starts
The 1990s began with an unprecedented democratic opening in Francophone Africa. While a number of countries have suffered setbacks and even reversals, others continue to make progress, and popular aspirations for democracy remain strong.
October 2002, Volume 13, Issue 4
Pluralism by Default in Moldova
During the 1990s, politics in the small post-Soviet state of Moldova was more competitive than anyone would have expected. Yet there was less to this surprising pluralism than met the eye.
April 2020, Volume 31, Issue 2
Viral Alarm: When Fury Overcomes Fear
The coronavirus outbreak has exposed the corrupt and rotten core of the Chinese Communist Party’s dictatorial rule over China. It is a moment of revelation. Can it also become one that leads to change?
January 2009, Volume 20, Issue 1
Can Cuba Change? Ferment in Civil Society
The opposition within Cuba has become more diverse as well as more unified, and the regime, despite its enduring capacity for repression, is showing signs of underlying weakness.
April 2023, Volume 34, Issue 2
The Putin Myth
Vladimir Putin’s reputation as a skillful leader was buoyed by years of economic good fortune. But when his regime faltered, his rule quickly descended into the fearful, repressive, and paranoid state we see today.
April 2019, Volume 30, Issue 2
30 Years After Tiananmen: The Meaning of June 4th
China’s 1989 democracy movement was brutally suppressed, but a former student leader argues that it also planted the seeds for the growth of Chinese civil society and for future democratization.
July 2012, Volume 23, Issue 3
African Elections: Two Divergent Trends
Regular elections have become a fixture of political life throughout sub-Saharan Africa, but there are now “two Africas” in this regard: one where elections bring the blessings of greater political openness and competition, and another where elections are, in effect, one more tool that authoritarians use to retain power.