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January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1

When Should the Majority Rule?

With illiberal forces ascendant across the globe, protecting individual liberties and the democratic process is crucial. But when institutions empower minority groups over the majority, can democracy survive?

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April 2010, Volume 21, Issue 2

The Ex-Presidents

What makes elected leaders step down at the appointed hour, and what do they have to look forward to once their terms end? A look at the political afterlives of world leaders tells us that the future prospects of presidents and premiers may well affect their behavior while in office.

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October 2021, Volume 32, Issue 4

How Authoritarians Win When They Lose

Turkey’s ruling party has developed a new tool: When its local candidates lose, it dismisses them and appoints its own choice under a guise that maintains the veneer of democracy. It is an autocratic innovation that may soon spread.

October 2013, Volume 24, Issue 4

Documents on Democracy

Excerpts from: Russian anticorruption crusader and Moscow mayoral candidate Alexei Navalny’s speech; presidential contender Nana Akufo-Addo’s speech conceding the race to John Dramani Mahama and Mahama’s address; remarks by jailed Chinese human-rights activist Xu Zhiyong and essay dedicated to him by lawyer and human-rights activist Teng Biao.

Putin’s Incredible Shrinking Victory Parade

How does a Russian autocrat celebrate Victory Day while losing a war? Expect lies, myths, and propaganda.  May 2022 By Olexiy Minakov Every year on May 9, Russia celebrates Victory Day to mark the 1945 triumph of the Soviet Union and its allies over Nazism. The spirit of militant Russian patriotism reaches its apogee on…

January 2016, Volume 27, Issue 1

Transition Leaders Speak

A review of Democratic Transitions: Conversations with World Leaders, edited by Sergio Bitar and Abraham F. Lowenthal.

April 2005, Volume 16, Issue 2

Documents on Democracy

Excerpts from: a statement by the Lebanese opposition; a speech by Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko; Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s inaugural address; inaugural remarks by Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian National Authority; a collective statement by Togolese civil society organizations; an appeal to the international community by 25 Nepalese human rights organizations; Romanian president…

January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1

Hong Kong’s Native Son

A review of The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared Critic, by Mark L. Clifford.

Why Putin’s Days Are Numbered

The system that Russia’s autocrat built wasn’t designed to survive the pressures it is now facing. March 2022  By Vladimir Milov The world’s attention is focused on the immense suffering of the brave Ukrainian people, and rightly so—no words can describe the misery and damage that Vladimir Putin has inflicted upon Ukraine with his unprovoked…

April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2

Documents on Democracy

A Ukrainian human-rights lawyer on moral responsibility during war; Nilofar Shidmehr’s poem “Say Her Name: Mahsa Jina Amini”; a Cuban prodemocracy activist vows to never give up; Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Belarus’s sham election; a Zimbabwean journalist turns himself in to police; the frontlines of the protests in Georgia; and an open letter to Xi Jinping.

July 2018, Volume 29, Issue 3

Documents on Democracy

Courage Tribute acceptance speeches from the World Movement for Democracy’s Ninth Assembly in Dakar, Senegal; Organization of American States (OAS) statement on Cuba’s presidential succession; French president Emmanual Macron’s address before the European Parliament; report by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.K. Parliament on Russian money laundering

January 2019, Volume 30, Issue 1

Documents on Democracy

Excerpts from: the G7 Charlevoix Commitment on Defending Democracy from Foreign Threats; victory speech by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro; inaugural address by Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador; inaugural address by Maldivian president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih; remarks by Angolan journalist Rafael Marques; and address by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Washington Declaration.

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January 2021, Volume 32, Issue 1

Why Strongmen Win in Weak States

While analysts of populism have focused on economic woes and “cultural backlash,” a thirst for the restoration of order may better explain the appeal of authoritarian populists in fragile democracies where governance is falling short.

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October 2023, Volume 34, Issue 4

AI and Catastrophic Risk

AI with superhuman abilities could emerge within the next few years, and there is currently no guarantee that we will be able to control them. We must act now to protect democracy, human rights, and our very existence.