April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
India’s Unlikely Democracy: Six Decades of Independence
By most theoretical accounts, Indian democracy should not even exist. Yet, despite serious challenges, it shows signs of enduring and even deepening.
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April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
India’s Unlikely Democracy: Civil Society Versus Corruption
Pervasive corruption hampers India's democracy, yet anticorruption movements may be helping to improve governmental accountability.
January 2006, Volume 17, Issue 1
The Surprising Significance of African Elections
Data from Africa show that repeated elections, regardless of their relative freeness or fairness,appear to have a positive impact on the growth of civil liberties and democratic values.
January 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1
Europe Moves Eastward: Concluding Reflections
The fall of the Berlin Wall gave East Europeans a euphoric sense that they were about to give European democacy a new direction. But as many of their countries prepare to join the EU, little has worked out as expected in those heady days.
April 2003, Volume 14, Issue 2
Latin America’s Lost Illusions: Brazil’s New Direction
The recent election of political outsider Lula da Silva as president is a sign of hope for the future of democracy in Brazil.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
Turbulence and Reform in Papua New Guinea
Holding regular, free elections may not be enough to stop turbulence that threatens both the quality of democracy and the coherence of the state.
October 2024, Volume 35, Issue 4
Majoritarianism Without Majorities
Majoritarian nationalism is a defining feature of our time. If we are to resist ethnonationalist leaders trying to recast our societies into imagined majorities, we must revise our conception of democracy and the exclusion inherent in majority rule.
July 2021, Volume 32, Issue 3
How Personalist Politics Is Changing Democracies
Once mostly found in authoritarian regimes, personalism is now putting established democracies in peril—a trend that digital technology will likely make worse.
January 1993, Volume 4, Issue 1
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: Organization of American States resolutions on the “presidential coup” in Peru; the report of the Argentinian National Commission of Disappeared Persons.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
The Fear of Shrinking Numbers
Illiberalism can drive away a country’s young people, and with them the future.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
History and Memory: The Revolutions of 1989-91
There has been surprisingly little celebration of the tenth anniversary of the revolutions that brought down communism. The exaggerated hopes of the time have given way to disillusionment, but the real achievements of many of the postcommunist countries should not be discounted.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
Is Pakistan the (Reverse) Wave of the Future?
Pakistan’s descent into authoritarian rule starkly depicts the “triple crisis of governance” that threatens many third-wave democracies. If these problems of governance are not addressed, a new “reverse wave” of democratization could be imminent.
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: remarks by Xu Youyu made while accepting the Homo Homini Award on behalf of imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo; the African Union’s decision on the forced resignation of Madagascar’s president; the inaugural address of Salvadoran president Mauricio Funes; ASEAN’s statement condemning Burma’s treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi.
April 1995, Volume 6, Issue 2
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: the “Plan of Action” of the Summit of the Americas; the inaugural speech Mozambican president Joaquim Alberto Chissano; appeals for reform of the National People’s Congress by democracy advocates in China; a speech by former U.S. ambassador to Kenya Smith Hempstone.
October 2007, Volume 18, Issue 4
Is East-Central Europe Backsliding? The Strange Death of the Liberal Consensus
The paradox of East-Central Europe is that the rise of populism is an outcome not of the failures but of the successes of postcommunist liberalism. *This is a corrected text of the print and original online version of this essay, which lacked proper citation for some of its sources. This is the only version that…
April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
A Refuge from Liberalism?
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.
April 2013, Volume 24, Issue 2
Lessons from Latin America: The Rise of Rentier Populism
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?
October 2024, Volume 35, Issue 4
The Return of Dictatorship
Alongside democratic backsliding is another, more pernicious phenomenon: dictatorial drift, where “soft” authoritarian regimes are opting to become highly repressive dictatorships. The West must develop new strategies to defend democracy across the globe.
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: a statement issued by a leading group of Russian democrats on the conflict over South Ossetia; a joint declaration condemning Russian military actions against Georgia; the African Democracy Forum’s statement condemning the military coup d’état in Mauritania.
October 1993, Volume 4, Issue 4
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: documents issued by Guatemala’s Court of Constitutionality and leaders of civil society; “The Vienna Declaration and Program of Action”; statement of Nigeria’s Civil Liberties Organisation; address of Dr. Sein Winn, leader of the exiled National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma; speeches by the South African recipients of the 1993 Liberty Medal.