April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
Power, Performance, and Legitimacy
Around the world, democracy has lost steam. If we are to regain the momentum, we must harness these essential elements and wage the struggle with the conviction that the times demand.
2745 Results
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Defeating Putin in Ukraine Is Vital to the Future of Democracy
Why we must tackle the threat posed by Putin and his authoritarianism head on. May 2022 By David J. Kramer The best hope for democracy in Russia—and all of Eurasia—is for the international community to support Ukraine in its efforts to defeat Vladimir Putin. The stakes for Ukraine, Russia, and the entire globe, for that…
October 2016, Volume 27, Issue 4
Particularism’s Empire
A review of The Quest for Good Governance: How Societies Develop Control of Corruption by Alina Mungiu-Pippidi.
October 2010, Volume 21, Issue 4
The Authoritarian Challenge
A review of Victorious and Vulnerable: Why Democracy Won in the 20th Century and How It Is Still Imperiled by Azar Gat.
July 2023, Volume 34, Issue 3
Why India’s Democracy Is Dying
Under Narendra Modi, India is maintaining the trappings of democracy while it increasingly harasses the opposition, attacks minorities, and stifles dissent. It can still reverse course, but the damage is mounting.
Putin’s Big Gamble
The Kremlin’s order to call up Russians to fight in Ukraine risks massive protests. It’s the riskiest decision of Putin’s rule, and it could lead to his undoing.
January 2022, Volume 33, Issue 1
Democracy’s Arc: From Resurgent to Imperiled
Whether democracy regains its footing will depend on how democratic leaders and citizens respond to emboldened authoritarians and the fissures within their own societies.
October 2011, Volume 22, Issue 4
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: a statement condemning the Egyptian Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' campaign against the country's civil society organizations and human-rights groups; a statement by two top EU officials on the arrest of former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko; an address given by Mongolian president Tsakhia Elbegdorj; the OAS resolution "Promotion of the Rights…
July 2011, Volume 22, Issue 3
Election Watch
Reports on elections in Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Estonia, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Micronesia, Niger, Nigeria, Peru, Singapore, and Uganda.
July 2021, Volume 32, Issue 3
How the Putin Regime Really Works
Is Russia formidable? The answer, two new books argue, lies in the highly centralized inner workings of Putin’s autocracy.
April 2023, Volume 34, Issue 2
Is Iran on the Verge of Another Revolution?
There have been numerous waves of protest against the country’s corrupt theocracy. This time is different. It is a movement to reclaim life. Whatever happens, there is no going back.
October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: a November 2002 lecture delivered by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Iraq, the late Sergio Vieira de Mello; the May 25 inaugural address of Argentinian president Néstor Kirchner; a May 17 speech by Zainah Anwar, executive director of Sisters in Islam, a Kuala Lumpur-based organization that advocates a more liberal interpretation of…
Thailand’s Revolutionary Election
Thailand’s voters — especially its young people — have sent the country’s junta a message: They want change now. But will the military listen? | Dan Slater
January 2015, Volume 26, Issue 1
The Myth of Democratic Recession
In contrast to the conventional wisdom that democracy is in retreat worldwide, the evidence tells a different story: The state of global democracy has been stable over the last decade and is actually better than it was in the 1990s.
April 2021, Volume 32, Issue 2
Authoritarian Vestiges in Democratic Regimes
Democracies rarely begin with a blank slate. Relics of authoritarian rule typically persist after democratic transitions, and these vestiges are not always harmful to people’s newfound freedom.
April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
India’s Unlikely Democracy: Civil Society Versus Corruption
Pervasive corruption hampers India's democracy, yet anticorruption movements may be helping to improve governmental accountability.
October 2017, Volume 28, Issue 4
Globalization Chinese-Style
A review of China’s Eurasian Century? Political and Strategic Implications of the Belt and Road Initiative by Nadège Rolland.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
Middle East Studies After 9/11: Islamists and the Politics of Consensus
Middle Eastern autocracies rely ever more on repression of both their Islamist and secular critics, and therefore increasingly fear that any opening will be uncontrollable. Is there a way out?
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.
July 2018, Volume 29, Issue 3
Explaining Eastern Europe: The Crisis of Liberalism
Thirty years ago in Central and Eastern Europe, belief in an open society and a sense of reasserted national and indeed European identity seemed to go hand-in-hand. But that was then.