October 2014, Volume 25, Issue 4
External Influence and Democratization: Structure vs. Choice
Linkage and leverage largely reflect long-term structural factors, and only in certain situations can they be affected by policy choices.
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July 2014, Volume 25, Issue 3
The Maidan and Beyond: The Russia Factor
The regime of Vladimir Putin has been a key driver of the crisis in Ukraine. Under challenge at home for several years now, it turned to Ukraine in part to firm up its own grip on power in Russia.
April 2014, Volume 25, Issue 2
A New Twilight in Zimbabwe? The Military vs. Democracy
By militarizing key state institutions and using violence against the opposition, Zimbabwe’s military elites have hindered the country’s transition to democracy. In return, they have been richly rewarded. Can the military’s tentacles be untangled from Zimbabwean politics?
January 2013, Volume 24, Issue 1
Southeast Asia: In The Shadow of China
Given Southeast Asia’s relatively high level of socioeconomic development, we might expect it to be a showcase of democracy. Yet it is not. To grasp why, one must look to deeper factors of history and geography.
October 2012, Volume 23, Issue 4
New Findings on Arabs and Democracy
The second wave of the Arab Barometer reveals strong and steady support for democracy in the Arab World but a deficit in democratic culture.
July 2012, Volume 23, Issue 3
The DRC’s Crumbling Legitimacy
On 9 December 2011, incumbent president Joseph Kabila was declared the official winner of the DRC’s deeply flawed presidential election, resulting in a legal president without legitimacy and an uncertain political future.
April 2012, Volume 23, Issue 2
The Freedom House Survey for 2011: The Year of the Arab Uprisings
Although in 2011 declines in freedom exceeded gains for the sixth straight year, the uprisings in the Arab world represent the most significant challenge to authoritarian rule since the collapse of Soviet communism.
January 2012, Volume 23, Issue 1
Indonesia: The Benefits of Civic Engagement
Indonesia, a populous, poor, predominantly Muslim society, has been able to maintain democracy thanks to a vibrant associational life.
October 2011, Volume 22, Issue 4
Nigeria Votes: More Openness, More Conflict
Nigeria’s 2011 presidential election offered its citizens the most competitive and transparent contest in decades, but also the bloodiest.
April 2011, Volume 22, Issue 2
The Politics of Personality in Brazil
Dilma Rousseff won the 2010 presidential election as the handpicked successor of a towering political personality. Now she must assert firm sway over a ruling party and coalition to which she has remarkably slender ties, and face new challenges that her country cannot meet with “more of the same.”
April 2011, Volume 22, Issue 2
Latin America’s Gay-Rights Revolution
Even before Argentina’s landmark gay-marriage law was passed in July 2010, a gay-rights revolution was well underway across Latin America. But do gay rights by law equal acceptance of gays in practice?
July 2010, Volume 21, Issue 3
Ukraine: The Uses of Divided Power
The 2010 presidential election shows that Ukraine is both a surprisingly stable electoral democracy and a disturbingly corrupt one. The corruption, moreover, may have a lot to do with the stability.
July 2010, Volume 21, Issue 3
In Praise of Václav Havel
A tribute to Václav Havel, Czech playwright and former dissident, who became not only president but the symbol of the “velvet revolutions.”
January 2010, Volume 21, Issue 1
Twenty Years of Postcommunism: Freedom and the State
This is a central problem—perhaps the central problem—for classical liberal theory and its crucial distinction between the state of nature and the civil state. Which is better for liberty: nature or the state?
October 2009, Volume 20, Issue 4
Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy (II): Does Electoral Democracy Boost Economic Equality?
The recent global progress of democracy has been accompanied by increasing economic inequality. What are the implications for the quality of democracy and for its ability to endure?
October 2009, Volume 20, Issue 4
India’s 2009 Elections: The Problem of Corruption
Democracy in India remains robust, but the scope and intensity of the corruption that pervades the political system are steadily eroding public trust.
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
Reading Russia: The Wounds of Lost Empire
There is no consensus about the nature of the political system in Moscow today. Yet how one understands the motivations propelling Russian policy abroad depends on how one understands its regime at home.
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
Reading Russia: It’s No Mystery
A fan of Mario Puzo’s Godfather novels will see the Putin government for what it is: a mafia.
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
Reading Russia: Tools of Autocracy
Read the full essay here. Arguably a flawed democracy in the 1990s, Russia took a distinctly authoritarian turn under President Vladimir Putin from 2000 to 2008. The country now lives under a façade democracy that barely conceals the political and administrative dominance of a self-interested bureaucratic corporation. The regime manufactures consent by means of three…
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
Reading Russia: Forms Without Substance
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…