October 2010, Volume 21, Issue 4
The Meanings of Democracy: Solving an Asian Puzzle
Over the years, the Asian Barometer Survey has yielded some surprising results. A new typological analysis helps to make sense of them.
1720 Results
glove collectors society 1989 2019 US president DG JI
July 2010, Volume 21, Issue 3
Ukraine: The Role of Regionalism
Although Ukraine’s regional divisions are often thought to be detrimental to state-building and democratization, they have in fact been a source of strength and helped to prevent tilts to the political extremes.
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?
April 2008, Volume 19, Issue 2
Trends in Democracy Assistance: What Has Europe Been Doing?
In recent years, European aid in support of political development has been on the rise. What kind of programs have these funds been supporting, and where are they being spent?
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
Christianity and Democracy: The Ambivalent Orthodox
Orthodoxy’s difficult historical experiences have made it ambivalent toward democatic pluralism, but that may be changing, with believers in established democacies leading the way.
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 2004, Volume 15, Issue 3
Election Watch
Reports on elections in Algeria, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, India, Indonesia, Macedonia, Malawi, Malaysia, Panama, Philippines, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan.
Why He May Soon Be Remembered as “Putin the Weak”
The Russian autocrat wanted to go down in history on par with Russia’s greatest leaders. He is increasingly looking like one of its weakest. | Michael McFaul
July 2020, Volume 31, Issue 3
Documents on Democracy
Remarks on China from Deputy U.S. National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger; joint statement by David Kaye, Harlem Désir, and Edison Lanza on protecting the free flow of information during the covid-19 pandemic; open letter by Indian academic and Dalit-rights activist Anand Teltumbde; reflections from Joshua Wong on the future of Hong Kong’s prodemocracy movement
Iran Erupts
Iranians are once again flooding the streets in protest. How is this wave of demonstrations different?
October 2009, Volume 20, Issue 4
Iran in Ferment: Civil Society’s Choice
When students and other rights activists decided to seize a tactical opening that the regime cynically offered them during the 2009 campaign, they were making a choice that was even more fateful than they knew.
July 2013, Volume 24, Issue 3
Putin versus Civil Society: The Long Struggle for Freedom
Today’s Russian protest movement in many ways resembles past civil-rights and civil-resistance efforts in other parts of the world, from its commitment to nonviolence to its key demands—a vote that counts and equality under the law. Listen to the podcast.
July 1999, Volume 10, Issue 3
The Churchill Hypothesis
Review of Democracy and Its Alternatives: Understanding Post-Communist Societies, by Richard Rose, William Mishler, and Christian Haerpfer.
April 1998, Volume 9, Issue 2
Surveying Postmaterialism
A review of Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies, by Ronald Inglehart.
October 1993, Volume 4, Issue 4
The Challenge of Ethnic Conflict: Democracy in Divided Societies
Read the full essay here.
Summer 1991, Volume 2, Issue 3
Reconstituting South Africa
A review of A Democratic South Africa? Constitutional Engineering in a Divided Society, by Donald L. Horowitz.
Breaking Han Silence
China’s recent protests marked a crucial milestone: The mainstream Chinese public, at home and abroad, finally spoke up for the Uyghurs and their plight. | Tenzin Dorjee
The Top Ten Most-Read Essays of 2021
In 2021, democracy’s fortunes were tested, and a tumultuous world became even more turbulent. Democratic setbacks arose in places as far flung as Burma, El Salvador, Tunisia, and Sudan, and a 20-year experiment in Afghanistan collapsed in days. The world’s democracies were beset by rising polarization, and people watched in shock as an insurrection took…
July 1992, Volume 3, Issue 3
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: the Transitional Period Charter of Ethiopia; a pamphlet of the Free Trade Union of China; Russian president Boris Yeltsin’s declaration on Poland and Russia.
Democracy’s Most Dangerous Assumptions
It is tempting to believe the horrors of the past will not haunt our future. Vladimir Putin is proving that we hold such beliefs at our peril.