April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
Liberal Tolerance for an Intolerant Age
What distinguishes liberal societies from all others is that they tolerate immoral behavior. It is this tolerance that protects us not just from our leaders but ourselves.
2376 Results
democracy vs authoritarian
April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
Liberalism as Fortress and Prison
The power of liberalism—though limited and never revered—enables it to serve as refuge while taming the demons of liberal society.
April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
Indonesia’s High-Stakes Handover
Indonesians have just elected a former general accused of human-rights abuses, with little respect for democratic institutions. The country’s democracy has not failed, but it may soon be fighting for its life.
April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
A Reply to My Critics
A liberal society must reckon the demands of the common good, while offering what we most crave—something worth sacrificing for.
April 2023, Volume 34, Issue 2
The Iraq War and Democratic Backsliding
The global democratic decline of the last two decades is rarely discussed in the same breath with the 2003 decision by the United States and Britain to invade Iraq. But the roots of our present disorder can be traced to that disastrous and foolhardy war of choice.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
Italy’s Hard Truths
The government of Giorgia Meloni, the country’s first female prime minister, is popular, scary, and competent. Her far-right party also enjoys greater democratic legitimacy than any other Italian party in a long time.
January 2022, Volume 33, Issue 1
Coup in Tunisia: Transition Arrested
Tunisia’s once-promising democratic transition had long failed to de-liver on its promises. It was a crisis waiting to be exploited. Kais Saied is simply the man who set it aflame.
April 2021, Volume 32, Issue 2
Making the Internet Safe for Democracy
The outsized power of large internet platforms to amplify or silence certain voices poses a grave threat to democracy. Finding a reliable way to dilute that power offers the best possible solution.
January 2021, Volume 32, Issue 1
Mainstream Parties in Crisis: The Antiestablishment Challenge
Faced with the rise of extreme and illiberal political players, mainstream parties have employed strategies of banning, marginalization, and cooptation. Yet to truly heal the underlying democratic ailment, establishment parties will need to look inward.
January 2021, Volume 32, Issue 1
The End of the Backsliding Paradigm
Like the “transition paradigm” before it, the concept of democratic backsliding threatens to flatten our perceptions of complex political realities. Examples from East-Central Europe illustrate the ambiguous dynamics at play in many troubled democracies.
July 2019, Volume 30, Issue 3
Aspirations and Realities in Africa: Democratic Delivery Falls Short
Data from the latest wave of the Afrobarometer survey show that Africans’ demand for liberal democracy remains high. The problem lies in lagging supply.
April 2019, Volume 30, Issue 2
30 Years After Tiananmen: Hong Kong Remembers
It was the impact of Tiananmen that made the democracy movement in Hong Kong a mass phenomenon. Today, the democratic cause in Hong Kong remains linked to the democratic cause in China as a whole.
April 2019, Volume 30, Issue 2
Catalonia: The Perils of Majoritarianism
Spain’s system of Autonomous Communities had functioned fairly smoothly for decades following the country’s democratic transition, but events in Catalonia are putting it under unprecedented strain.
January 2019, Volume 30, Issue 1
India Under Modi: Threats to Pluralism
In the world’s largest democracy, liberalism is in retreat, as evidenced by a pattern of assaults on minorities, press freedom, and the independence of key cultural and intellectual institutions.
October 2017, Volume 28, Issue 4
South Korea After Impeachment
After a presidential corruption scandal sparked peaceful mass protests leading to the impeachment and removal of the incumbent, South Koreans went to the polls to choose her successor. Was this drama a window on the troubles of South Korean democracy, or a testament to its strength and resilience?
July 2017, Volume 28, Issue 3
India’s Democracy at 70: Toward a Hindu State?
Read the full essay here. While the Constitution of India has not been amended after the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in 2014, BJP-ruled states have passed laws which have reflected the Hindu-nationalist ideology of this party, including those known as “beef bans.” These laws and the activities of Hindu nationalist…
July 2017, Volume 28, Issue 3
India’s Democracy at 70: The Federalist Compromise
Read the full essay here. The institutionalized recognition of diversity within India’s federal system has been crucial for democratic consolidation. Substantial decentralization since the 1990s has made state governments central actors in shaping economic activity and national-election outcomes. However, since his rise to national office in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has projected an image…
July 2017, Volume 28, Issue 3
India’s Democracy at 70: The Troublesome Security State
Read the full essay here. Seven decades after gaining its independence from the British Empire, India retains all the hallmarks of a functioning democracy: It holds reasonably free and fair elections, has a mostly independent judiciary plus a largely free press, and enjoys a robust and growing civil society. Yet thanks to India’s colonial inheritance…
January 2017, Volume 28, Issue 1
Britain After Brexit: Resistance from Scotland
Just two years after voting to stay in the United Kingdom, Scotland voted to remain in the EU while Britain as a whole voted to leave. Is another independence referendum coming?
July 2016, Volume 27, Issue 3
Delegative Democracy Revisited: More Inclusion, Less Liberalism in Bolivia
Over the last decade or so, Bolivia has made great progress at wider political and social inclusion, but at some cost to civil liberties and horizontal accountability.