Why the Defenders of Liberal Democracy Need to Stand Up
If liberal norms and institutions are to prevail, they need to be defended from the left and the right.
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January 2022, Volume 33, Issue 1
Coup in Tunisia: Is Democracy Lost?
President Kais Saied’s power grab has crushed Tunisian democracy, returning the country to the old playbook of Arab dictators past and present.
Winter 1990, Volume 1, Issue 1
Tiananmen and Beyond: Peering Over the Great Wall
Our goal at present is the thorough modernization of China. We all have a compelling sense of the need for this. There is a widespread feeling of dissatisfaction with the status quo among people in all walks of life.
Why Sanctions Don’t Work Against Dictatorships
From Putin’s invasion to Kim’s nuclear saber rattling, the West has punished the world’s worst regimes. But have sanctions missed their targets? | Agathe Demarais
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
Breaking Out of the Democratic Slump
There is still an opportunity to pull the world out of its democratic slump. What is most needed is democratic conviction and resolve.
October 2014, Volume 25, Issue 4
Euroskepticism Arrives: The Missing Debate
Disagreements over how much power should reside in Brussels must be allowed to become a normal aspect of debates about European affairs.
October 1993, Volume 4, Issue 4
Leopold Labedz (1920-1993)
A memorial service was held on June 15 in Washington, D.C., to pay tribute to Leopold Labedz, who died on March 22 in London. A founding member of the editorial board of the Journal of Democracy, Labedz served as editor of the British journal Survey from 1962 to 1989. Speakers at the service, who extolled Labedz’s lifelong…
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
Reading Russia: The Rules of Survival
The image of Putin’s Russia as an authoritarian oil state attracts many Western analysts because it seems to carry a promise that falling oil prices will bring regime change. Thus, many were convinced that a major economic crisis would force the Kremlin either to open up the system and allow more pluralism and competition, or…
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
Fear and Learning in the Arab Uprisings
Demonstrators in Algeria and Sudan have drawn on the experiences of earlier Arab protest movements in their efforts to push for lasting change.
October 2015, Volume 26, Issue 4
Authoritarianism Goes Global (II): China’s Foreign Propaganda Machine
China is aggressively working to reshape its image, touting the “Chinese Dream” and its desire for a peaceful rise to power on the international stage.
October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
Argentina Weathers the Storm
In the wake of its recent crisis, Argentina can move from survival to stability only if it responds to demands for institutional change in a way that strengthens the country’s institutions over the long term.
July 2017, Volume 28, Issue 3
India’s Democracy at 70: The Impact of Instant Universal Suffrage
Read the full essay here. When the authors of India’s Constitution took the extraordinarily bold step of establishing universal suffrage, thus giving the right to vote to all adult citizens, India became the world’s first large democracy to adopt universal adult suffrage from its very inception. We call India’s move “instant universal suffrage,” and distinguish…
July 2004, Volume 15, Issue 3
Russian Democracy in Eclipse: The Limits of Bureaucratic Authoritarianism
Vladimir Putin aspires to be a classic authoritarian modernizer, but in today's globalized world Russia faces challenges that bureaucratic centralization and a traditional strong hand cannot meet.
Why Poland’s Liberals Lost
Political blunders, distrust of elites, and Donald Tusk’s inability to deliver on his promises helped make an unknown, far-right former bodyguard the country’s next president. Worse, it will be far harder now to safeguard Polish democracy.
October 1997, Volume 8, Issue 4
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León’s state of the Union and the lower chamber president Porfirio Muñoz Ledo’s response; a communique of the June 1997 Summit of Eight; “The Homeland Belongs to Us All” by four Cuban human rights activists.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
Why Latin America’s Democracies Are Stuck
This is the toughest time for Latin America’s democracies in decades. Democratic stagnation makes them ripe targets for illiberal populists and other would-be authoritarians who will feed the region’s worst vices.
January 2015, Volume 26, Issue 1
Cross-Currents in Latin America
A survey of the region yields a patchwork result, with democratic governance faring well in some countries, at a standstill in others, and in the most worrisome cases actively eroding.
January 2012, Volume 23, Issue 1
Debating Electoral Systems: Getting Elections Wrong
Evidence from waves of democratization shows proportional election systems, however imperfect, to be the better option in most contexts.
October 2010, Volume 21, Issue 4
African Elections as Vehicles for Change
Since the return of multipartism in sub-Saharan Africa, open-seat elections have been the most likely to yield opposition victories, suggesting that term limits may significantly contribute to democratic consolidation.
October 2006, Volume 17, Issue 4
A “Left Turn” in Latin America? An Unlikely Comeback in Peru
An unexpected winner emerged in Peru's close-fought presidential election. Alan García's earlier presidential term was calamitous at best, and yet he may now be the harbinger of a brighter future for Peru's democracy.