April 2003, Volume 14, Issue 2
Turkey at the Polls: After the Tsunami
After enduring years of paternalism punctuated by trauma, Turkish voters have pointed their country in a new direction.
2702 Results
game of thrones friendly 1377x
April 2003, Volume 14, Issue 2
Latin America’s Lost Illusions: Decentralization and Political Parties
Decentralization, heralded as a means of increasing state efficiency and improving representation, has fragmented Latin America’s already weak party systems
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
China’s Changing of the Guard: Authoritarian Resilience
Successful institutionalization will help the regime survive the pressures of advanced modernization and integration with the global economy.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
China’s Changing of the Guard: Threats to Party Supremacy
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 1998, Volume 9, Issue 3
India Defies the Odds: Enduring Another Election
Indians appear to love the practice of democracy so much that they are in danger of overdoing it. In February and March of 1998, the world's largest democracy held its twelfth general election since gaining its independence a half-century ago. The voting was largely fair and peaceful. New, right-of-center rulers led by the Bharatiya Janata…
July 2024, Volume 35, Issue 3
Pakistan’s Coming Crisis
Pakistani voters sent the military a message in the February elections: They no longer trust the “guardian of the country.” Worse for the generals, they can no longer escape accountability for their corruption and incompetence because everyone knows the military is in charge.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
Transitional Justice and Its Discontents
The impulse to have crimes against humanity investigated and punished, like the impulse behind “truth and reconciliation” commissions, is understandable. But legalism cannot supersede the hard and messy work of politics.
July 2012, Volume 23, Issue 3
Oil, Politics, and Ghana’s Democracy
Ghana has won praise for its steady progress toward democratic consolidation. In late 2010 it joined the ranks of the world’s oil producers. Will the democratic institutions be able to resist the “resource curse”?
January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1
The Return of Politics in Bangladesh
The student movement that toppled Bangladesh’s longtime autocratic ruler wants more than a return to the old order. These young revolutionaries are seizing a chance to start anew. How and by whom will the country’s future be decided?
July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3
Religious Exclusion and the Origins of Democracy
The most challenging type of diversity for democracy is religious diversity. This also helps explain why modern democracy first took root in Western Europe: Religiously homogenous populations went hand in hand with the early formation of parliaments.
July 2023, Volume 34, Issue 3
The Authoritarian Roots of India’s Democracy
To say that Indian democracy is backsliding misunderstands the country’s history and the challenges it faces: A certain authoritarianism is embedded in India’s constitution and political structures.
January 2008, Volume 19, Issue 1
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: a Washington Post op-ed written by U Gambira, a pseudonym for the leader of the All-Burma Monks Alliance; remarks by Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, accepting the W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award; the keynote address given by Indonesian president Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the 40th Annual Conference of the International Association of Political…
January 2015, Volume 26, Issue 1
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: an open letter by the Hong Kong Federation of Students to Chinese premier Li Keqiang; the campaign manifesto of former finance minister Ashraf Ghani, who was proclaimed Afghanistan’s president; the third annual Carlos Cardoso Memorial Lecture; an open letter calling for the release of human-rights activist Liu Xiaobo.
April 1994, Volume 5, Issue 2
Documents on Democracy
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).
October 2018, Volume 29, Issue 4
Democracy’s “Near Misses”
What factors help a democracy to survive a crisis? A study of cases in which democracy suffered a steep decline, yet ultimately recovered and endured, offers new insights. In moments of crisis, unelected and nonmajoritarian actors can play a pivotal role.
April 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: a resolution adopted by the Third International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees; Eduardo Duhalde’s first address as president of Argentina; the opening address of Hussain Sinjari a a seminar entitled “Prospects for Democracy in Iraq”; the introductory speech of the European Convention by Convention chairman, former French president Valéry Giscard-d’Estaing.
April 2001, Volume 12, Issue 2
Election Watch
Reports on elections in Benin, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Moldova, Samoa, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, and Yugoslavia (Serbia).
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
The Institutionalization of Political Power in Africa
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.
April 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2
Terror, Islam, and Democracy
Although Islamist terror groups invoke a host of religious references, the real source of their ideas is not the Koran but rather Leninism, fascism, and other strains of twentieth-century thought that exalt totalitarian violence.
October 2013, Volume 24, Issue 4
Tracking the “Arab Spring”: Syria and the Future of Authoritarianism
The Assad regime has been adapting to the new challenges posed by mass uprisings through a process of “authoritarian learning,” and at least some of its methods are being applied elsewhere in the region. Watch an interview with the author.