2441 Results
April 1994, Volume 5, Issue 2
Excerpts from: speeches by ANC President Nelson Mandela and South African President F.W. De Klerk from the International Press Institute’s 43rd General Assembly; a UN General Assembly resolution criticizing the continuing denial of human rights and democracy in Burma (Myanmar).
April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
The belief we can “escape” remains a part of the liberal imagination. In truth, it is realized in the form of detachment from any community, an exodus without refuge.
July 2008, Volume 19, Issue 3
Read the full essay here. This article makes a case of the basic distinction between Islam and Islamism and presents three central arguments: 1. through religious reforms and a rethinking of the Islamic doctrine, the cultural system of Islam can be put in harmony with democracy, 2. this (first) argument does not apply to Islamism…
April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
Around the world, democracy has lost steam. If we are to regain the momentum, we must harness these essential elements and wage the struggle with the conviction that the times demand.
October 2014, Volume 25, Issue 4
The European Parliament elections of May 2014 were not an “earthquake,” but they did signal that Euroskeptic parties are drawing closer to the European political mainstream.
July 2024, Volume 35, Issue 3
If democracies did a better job “delivering” for their citizens, so the thinking goes, people would not be so ready to embrace antidemocratic alternatives. Not so. This conventional wisdom about democratic backsliding is seldom true and often not accurate at all.
April 1997, Volume 8, Issue 2
Excerpts from: the acceptance speech of José Ramos-Horta, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize; Guatemalan president Alvaro Arzú’s speech on the occasion of the signing of a comprehensive peace accord.
April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
Yulia Navalnaya’s speech after her husband’s death; Russian human-rights activist Oleg Orlov’s closing court statement; “Dictateur” by Senegalese hip-hop artist and social-justice activist Gunman Xuman; a speech from Mexico’s “March for Democracy”; a letter to Nicaraguans from the Group of 94; “120 Days in Secret Detention” by Chinese activist Li Qiaochu.
January 2024, Volume 35, Issue 1
Can a strong, independent supreme court serve as a guarantor of democracy? In Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, judges are showing a surprising resolve in fending off their countries’ antidemocratic forces.
July 2008, Volume 19, Issue 3
The rise of Islamist parties poses new challenges to efforts to understand the relationship between Islam and democracy. A diverse group of authors investigates this new phenomenon and its implications for the future of democracy in the Middle East.
April 2012, Volume 23, Issue 2
In 2011, Thais reelected a party backed by deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Why is his brand of populism so irrepressible, and what can be done to reconcile the voting power of Thailand’s rural lower classes with the establishment dug in around the Thai monarchy?
October 2011, Volume 22, Issue 4
In a runoff between candidates with dubious democratic credentials, former antisystem outsider Ollanta Humala defeated Keiko Fujimori by attracting votes from the middle class.
January 2024, Volume 35, Issue 1
Populism is a mortal threat to liberal democracy, but it rarely hits the mark. The evidence shows that these would-be strongmen require an extraordinary set of circumstances to succeed, which is why they so rarely do.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
To grasp why post-Mao China’s remarkable economic development has not aided democracy, we must look first at the policies of top Chinese leaders.
October 2012, Volume 23, Issue 4
The “Arab Spring” has been very hard on autocratic presidents but so far has left the Arab world’s monarchies intact. How and why have Arab royals been able to resist the tide of protest?
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
Read the full essay here. Twenty years ago, there was a more thoroughgoing political pluralism in Russia than there is today. In some respects, the forms of democracy-including party consolidation-have been enhanced, but they have been so manipulated as to deprive them of substance. Either “electoral authoritarianism” of “multiparty authoritarianism” (Juan Linz’s terms) may reasonably…
April 2006, Volume 17, Issue 2
There was nothing inevitable about the unraveling of Soviet communism. The role played by individuals such as Aleksandr Yakovlev was crucial.
January 2005, Volume 16, Issue 1
World events-recent, current, and almost certainly to come-drive home the truth that before there can be a democratic state, there must first be a functioning state, period. Creating workable states where they have been destroyed or have barely existed yields to none among the challenges of our time.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
The Communist Party’s adaptation to China’s new social elites will lead to a democratic transition only, if at all, at the expense of regime continuity.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
Excerpts from: “Tunisia 2004: Manifesto of Progressive Tunisian Democrats”; the Declaration of Quebec City from the third Summit of the Americas meeting; Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castañeda’s address at the 57th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
