3273 Results
January 2016, Volume 27, Issue 1
While “autocracy promotion” presents a real danger, its influence so far has been limited. Because authoritarian regimes are concerned first with furthering their own interests, their interventions often have contradictory effects, sometimes even inadvertently fostering greater pluralism.
July 1999, Volume 10, Issue 3
The recognition of democracy as a universally relevant system is a major revolution in thinking, and one of the main contributions of the twentieth century. While not yet universally practiced, democracy is now being taken as generally right.
April 2010, Volume 21, Issue 2
Excerpts from: a statement by Liu Xiaobo, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison on charches of “inciting subversion of state power”; the inaugural address of Honduran president Porfirio Lobo; a statement issued by the Sri Lankan Lawyers for Democracy; the inaugural address of Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
January 2021, Volume 32, Issue 1
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.
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
Excerpts from: Charter 08, an open letter calling for a political system in China based on human rights and democracy; an ECOWAS statement condemning the military coup in Guinea; the inauguration speech of new Ghanaian president John Evans; statements issued commending the conduct of Iraq’s January 31 provincial elections.
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
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.
October 2024, Volume 35, Issue 4
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.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
Trillions of dollars are stashed in the world’s secret financial system, where they are keeping autocratic regimes afloat and fueling democracy’s decline.
July 2021, Volume 32, Issue 3
Despite the challenges, middleware offers a legally and politically feasible answer to platforms’ influence over speech.
January 2013, Volume 24, Issue 1
China is heading toward a tipping point, with two likely scenarios for how a political opening will come about. Most Chinese intellectuals think that only gradualism—“slow and steady,” step-by-step reform—can offer China a safe and feasible path toward liberal democracy. But they are wrong. Instead of “taking it slow,” China should shun gradualism and opt…
July 2018, Volume 29, Issue 3
When nonviolent mass protests occur under authoritarian regimes, the military plays a key role in determining the outcome: the hardening of the dictatorship, a new authoritarian regime, or a transition to democracy.
January 2012, Volume 23, Issue 1
The legitimacy and appeal of democracy in East Asia will depend on how democratic countries in the region stack up against China.
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
The image of Putin’s Russia as an authoritarian oil state attracts many Western analysts because it seems to carry a promise that falling oil prices will bring regime change. Thus, many were convinced that a major economic crisis would force the Kremlin either to open up the system and allow more pluralism and competition, or…
The Chinese Communist Party is deadly serious about its authoritarian designs, and it is bent on promoting them. It is time for the world’s democracies to get serious, too. | Michael Beckley and Hal Brands
January 2019, Volume 30, Issue 1
A review of How to Rig an Election by Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klaas.
January 2008, Volume 19, Issue 1
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…
April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
Liberal societies are those which offer refuge from the very people they empower—through individual choice, mobility, and the possibility of exit. This is the form of liberty that most clearly elevates the liberal project.
April 2021, Volume 32, Issue 2
The swelling pessimism about democracy’s future is unwarranted. Values focused on human freedom are spreading throughout the world, and suggest that the future of self-government is actually quite bright.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
Even if Vladimir Putin were to lose his grip on office, the “Russian system” might only wind up exchanging one form of personalized power for another in its endless search for self-perpetuation.
