January 2018, Volume 29, Issue 1
The Rise of Kleptocracy: Malaysia’s Missing Billions
One of the world’s worst public-corruption scandals shows how a lax international financial system enables massive graft in developing countries.
1934 Results
January 2018, Volume 29, Issue 1
One of the world’s worst public-corruption scandals shows how a lax international financial system enables massive graft in developing countries.
January 2018, Volume 29, Issue 1
Russia’s ruling elite have used corruption not only to line their own pockets, but also as a tool of domestic political control and global power projection.
January 2018, Volume 29, Issue 1
The worldwide popularity of runoff rules for presidential elections has grown strikingly in recent decades. In Latin America, contrary to scholarly expectations, this shift has had important benefits for democracy.
January 2018, Volume 29, Issue 1
In July 2017, Timor-Leste held its third parliamentary elections since independence. The party-centered campaign featured both enduring legacies of the revolutionary struggle and a distinct form of political patronage.
October 2017, Volume 28, Issue 4
Wrongly viewed by many media sources as a victory for “reform” and “openness,” the recent presidential election in Iran actually reflected the demoralization and disengagement of the country’s prodemocratic opposition.
July 2017, Volume 28, Issue 3
Read the full essay here. When the authors of India’s Constitution took the extraordinarily bold step of establishing universal suffrage, thus giving the right to vote to all adult citizens, India became the world’s first large democracy to adopt universal adult suffrage from its very inception. We call India’s move “instant universal suffrage,” and distinguish…
January 2017, Volume 28, Issue 1
The British party system is being fundamentally reshaped by the consequences of the British decision to leave the EU, which also threatens to reduce Britain’s influence on the rest of the world.
October 2016, Volume 27, Issue 4
Europe’s democratic stability hinges on Germany, but a far-right challenger is on the rise. Can the country’s long-dominant centrist parties hold on?
October 2016, Volume 27, Issue 4
Once the poster child for successful postcommunist transitions to democracy, Poland is now governed by populist nationalists. What happened?
October 2016, Volume 27, Issue 4
Duterte promised voters that he would swiftly reduce crime and poverty and enact constitutional change. But will he violate democratic norms and rule of law in the process?
July 2016, Volume 27, Issue 3
Long a standout example of consensus-based politics, prosperous Switzerland has now become a mixed democracy with a good deal of polarization and uncertain prospects.
April 2016, Volume 27, Issue 2
Venezuela’s competitive authoritarian regime now confronts a highly mobilized opposition with a large majority in the legislature. What are the prospects for successful democratic change amidst a deteriorating security situation and an economy in freefall?
January 2016, Volume 27, Issue 1
Across East-Central Europe, the political center ground has long been characterized by the uneasy cohabitation of liberal and illiberal norms, but the latter have been gradually overpowering the former.
January 2016, Volume 27, Issue 1
Is democracy in East-Central Europe suffering because of a lack of liberal zeal among elites, as Dawson and Hanley contend, or is it because liberal policies have failed to deliver on their promises?
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
In a year marked by escalating terrorism, the use of more brutal repression by authoritarian regimes, and Russia’s annexation of a neighboring country’s territory, the state of freedom worsened significantly in nearly every part of the world.
July 2014, Volume 25, Issue 3
In February 2014, Salvadorans narrowly elected as president a former FMLN guerrilla commander, but he will have to deal with a dire economy and horrific levels of crime.
April 2014, Volume 25, Issue 2
With the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in a 26-year civil war, Sri Lanka had a chance for genuine reconciliation, but that chance is being squandered by the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
January 2014, Volume 25, Issue 1
Communism is gone, but while it was alive and in power it bred profound moral pathologies that still haunt the region.
January 2014, Volume 25, Issue 1
“New media” may generate a lot of buzz, but authoritarian regimes are proving disturbingly adept both at counteracting them and at using more traditional media to help themselves hang on to power.
July 2013, Volume 24, Issue 3
President Rafael Correa, now entering his third term, has built a curious form of populist-authoritarian regime. He champions redistributionism and a kind of technocratic leftism while assaulting the traditional left along with such mainstays of a liberal society as the freedom of the press.