July 2016, Volume 27, Issue 3
The Struggle Over Term Limits in Africa: A New Look at the Evidence
There is strong empirical evidence to support the correlation between effective term limits and the quality of democracy.
2376 Results
democracy vs authoritarian
July 2016, Volume 27, Issue 3
Delegative Democracy Revisited: Latin America’s Problems of Success
Latin America has not been witnessing a general trend toward authoritarianism, but accountability—whether horizontal, vertical, or both—has suffered in some countries, and at times has done so as a side-effect or unexpected cost of what must be considered signal democratic advances toward noble goals such as greater social and political inclusion.
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.
January 2008, Volume 19, Issue 1
The Democracy Barometers (Part II): Latin America’s Diversity of Views
Attitudes toward democracy in Latin America vary from country to country, and within countries between left and right. Public opinion is strongly affected by the success or failure of political leaders in delivering social and economic change.
October 2004, Volume 15, Issue 4
The Quality of Democracy: An Overview
Since most of the world’s sovereign states are now democracies, there is a growing scholarly focus on “good” or “better” democracy, and on how improvements can not only be measured, but encouraged.
October 2022, Volume 33, Issue 4
Why Ukrainians Are Rallying Around Democracy
The share of Ukrainians who endorse democracy as the best form of government has risen fast in short order, standing now at more than three-quarters. New data reveal a surprising explanation behind this remarkable shift.
What’s to Blame for Democratic Backsliding?
A democratic recession has been sweeping the globe for more than two decades, and it’s picking up steam. What explains this alarming decline? In the April issue, leading scholars debate the root causes of democratic backsliding, and what can be done to stop it.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
Armies and Autocrats: Why Putin’s Military Failed
When Vladimir Putin launched a massive invasion of Ukraine, he expected an easy victory. Instead, the world has witnessed an object lesson in how a corrupt Russian regime crippled its own military power.
July 1998, Volume 9, Issue 3
India Defies the Odds: Why Democracy Survives
India has long baffled theorists of democracy. Democratic theory holds that poverty, widespread illiteracy, and a deeply hierarchical social structure are inhospitable conditions for the functioning of democracy. Yet except for 18 months in 1975-77, India has maintained its democratic institutions ever since it became independent of Britain in 1947. Over those five decades, there…
July 2010, Volume 21, Issue 3
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from remarks presented by newly elected Chilean president Sebastián Piñera upon signing a set of proposed laws for the strengthening of democracy to be submitted to the Congress.
January 1995, Volume 6, Issue 1
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: a speech by Secretary General of the Organization of American States César Gaviria-Trujillo, former president of Colombia; “Resolution on Democratization in the Asia-Pacific Region”; the inaugural address of Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León.
Why Putin Must Be Defeated
Online Exclusive by Andrei Kozyrev | The more determined democracies are to avoid war, the greater the risk that autocracies will wage it.
October 2024, Volume 35, Issue 4
Documents on Democracy
An interview with Vladimir Kara-Murza; María Corina Machado on the Venezuelan opposition movement; a speech from Bangladesh’s new interim chief advisor; an open letter from Tunisian opposition candidates; a professor on the youth anticorruption protests in Uganda; and NATO’s seventy-fifth anniversary.
January 2018, Volume 29, Issue 1
Burma: Suu Kyi’s Missteps
Despite high hopes for progress toward democracy, the military’s power remains stubbornly entrenched, while Aung San Suu Kyi seems to lack the skills to run the government effectively.
January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1
Why Ukraine Shouldn’t Negotiate with Putin
Many pundits cry for a negotiated settlement to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. But they misunderstand Vladimir Putin’s motives. The only just end to the war will be in the trenches, not at the bargaining table.
July 1998, Volume 9, Issue 3
Octavio Paz (1914-1998)
The death of Mexican poet and essayist Octavio Paz on April 20 was (in the words of Mexico’s president Ernesto Zedillo) “an irreplaceable loss for contemporary thought and culture—not just for Latin America but for the entire world.” Born in Mexico City on 31 March 1914, Paz published his first book of poetry while still…
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
Reading Russia: The Siloviki in Charge
Since Vladimir Putin’s rise to power at the end of the 1990s, siloviki—the people who work for, or used to work for, Russia’s “ministries of force” have spread to posts throughout all the branches of power in Russia.
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 2017, Volume 28, Issue 1
Tunisia’s Islamists and the “Turkish Model”
Ennahda has long felt an especially strong kinship with Turkey’s AKP, which has seen as representing a combination of piety, prosperity, and democratic credibility. How might their relationship be affected by the AKP's more recent authoritarian turn?