April 1998, Volume 9, Issue 2
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: remarks and homily of Pope John Paul II given during his visit to Cuba; South Korean president Kim Dae Jung’s inaugural address.
898 Results
April 1998, Volume 9, Issue 2
Excerpts from: remarks and homily of Pope John Paul II given during his visit to Cuba; South Korean president Kim Dae Jung’s inaugural address.
October 2013, Volume 24, Issue 4
Do even unfree and unfair elections in sub-Saharan Africa, if repeated often enough, really contribute to democratization? A fresh look at the evidence casts doubt on the theory of “democratization by elections.”
October 2022, Volume 33, Issue 4
Democracy’s meaning has always been contested. Letting that struggle become a battle between existential foes risks upending the whole democratic project.
July 2024, Volume 35, Issue 3
Democracy is on dangerous ground when its fundamental rules become the main point of political contention. This is where we are today. The truth is that the institutions, not just the players, need to change.
October 2015, Volume 26, Issue 4
A review of Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy by Francis Fukuyama.
January 2010, Volume 21, Issue 1
Excerpts from: Ayman Nour’s video message to the National Endowment for Democracy’s conference, “Middle Eastern Democrats and Their Vision of the Future”; Wang Lixiong’s speech accepting the Light of Truth Award; Ladan Boroumand’s speech accepting the Lech Wałęsa Prize; the “EU Agenda for Action”—the annex to the “Conclusions on Democracy Support in the EU’s External Relations”
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
Sub-Saharan Africa has been traditionally depicted as a place where formal institutional rules are largely irrelevant-yet in the past fifteen years these rules have come to matter, and this trend is unlikely to reverse.
July 2019, Volume 30, Issue 3
Excerpts from: a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; a speech by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi; a speech by Félix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); a statement by Reverend Chu Yiu-ming; and a speech by Jens Stoltenberg, secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
October 1992, Volume 3, Issue 4
Excerpts from: closing statements of a congress of diverse elements of the Iraqi opposition; a “Charter for American-Russian Partnership and Friendship”; Philippine president Fidel Ramos’s inaugural address; pastoral letter from the Roman Catholic Bishops of Malawi; the “Declaration of Caracas.”
July 2005, Volume 16, Issue 3
Excerpts from: a joint statement to the Kyrgyz nation issued by the presidents of Georgia and Ukraine; the Madrid Agenda; a letter issued by five hundred Chinese human rights and democracy activists; the third UN Development Programme Arab Human Development Report; a secret audio audio message recorded by Thich Quang Do, deputy leader of the…
April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
The problem for democracy today is not capitalism; it is a decline in public honesty and civility. But there is an opportunity to revive our sense of national community, if we seize it.
January 2021, Volume 32, Issue 1
Iranian women’s rights activist Shaparak Shajarizadeh’s speech accepting the Morris B. Abram award; the World Uyghur Congress statement for the UN’s 75th anniversary; call by NGOs for the release of human-rights advocate Ramy Kamel in Egypt; NGO statement on the police response to Thai prodemocracy protests; statement of support for LGBTI activists in Poland; statement…
October 2022, Volume 33, Issue 4
Beijing is bent on deploying mass surveillance to eliminate threats to its rule. It is terrifying—and the latest example of its determination to remold society.
January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1
Democracy’s unique, flexible, and substantial resources make it better than authoritarianism at confronting climate change.
July 2020, Volume 31, Issue 3
In the decade leading up to the covid-19 pandemic, nonviolent civil resistance grew more popular than ever—but its effectiveness had already started to plummet. The future of nonviolent resistance may depend on movements’ ability to move beyond mass protests toward exploring alternative tactics and developing smarter, longer-term strategies.
April 2013, Volume 24, Issue 2
Latin America’s much-discussed political “left turn” has taken two very different forms. Why has the region’s commodities boom led some left-turn states to move toward “plebiscitarian superpresidentialism,” while others have resisted this temptation?
April 2013, Volume 24, Issue 2
Should Brussels intervene to protect democracy within EU member states? Does Europe have the tools it would need to do so effectively? Recent developments in Hungary and Romania show the importance of addressing these questions sooner rather than later.
July 2024, Volume 35, Issue 3
There is a troubling tension around “people power” in Africa today: African social movements are among the most successful at ousting autocrats. But the continent’s entrenched antidemocratic institutions leave these victories highly vulnerable to reversal.
January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1
Regime type is important, but it is the power of the fossil-fuel industry in both autocracies and democracies that is blocking the green transition globally.
Fall 1990, Volume 1, Issue 4
The complete text of the “Freedom Charter,” the basic statement of principles of the anti-apartheid African National Congress party of South Africa.