2036 Results
Billions in much-needed American military aid are now headed for Ukraine. The following Journal of Democracy essays demonstrate what it will take to reverse the course of this war of attrition, and why this struggle is a “contest between democracy and dictatorship.”
Coups are a direct assault on democracy. And militaries can be pivotal to whether a coup succeeds or fails. The following Journal of Democracy essays examine what makes coups more likely, and how democracies can keep the military brass from seizing power.
Authoritarians are evolving — becoming more unconstrained and repressive at home, and more destructive on the global stage. The following essays unpack the authoritarians’ toolkit, revealing their strategies for taking power and upending the liberal world order.
China’s totalitarian regime is built on surveillance, censorship, and repression, with harsh penalties for anyone who dares to defy it. Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party have ambitions that extend beyond China’s borders. The following Journal of Democracy essays explore how China undermines democracy both at home and abroad. Read for free now.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu-nationalist BJP explicitly exclude and routinely attack the country’s largest minority, but the political opposition is silent, too afraid to jeopardize its base of support. These essays explore India’s complex democratic history and its prospects for the future.
Romania is the latest example of rising far-right populism across Europe. The essays below examine the forces driving these illiberal political movements.
A free market can foster pluralism and insulate civilians from authoritarian coercion. But money used the wrong way has enormous potential for destruction. The Journal of Democracy essays below, free for a limited time, explore the complex relationship between capitalism and democracy.
The drama of the country’s divided government just played out in a failed, high-stakes vote to recall two-dozen opposition legislators. How both sides respond could determine the fate of Taiwan’s democracy.
After years of increasingly authoritarian rule, Tanzanian president Samia Suluhu Hassan was hailed as a democratic reformer. But as Dan Paget and Aikande Clement Kwayu write in the July issue of the JoD, the president is more performer than reformer, relying on theatrics to delay real reform while sharpening her tools of repression.
The Alaska summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin struck an uncanny resemblance to the Washington-Moscow meetings of the Cold War. But 2025 is not 1985. Washington and Moscow cannot simply redraw the map without Ukraine and Europe at the table. How should the war in Ukraine end?
On this International Day of Democracy, we reflect on democracy’s inherent value, try to understand why faith in self-rule is waning, and consider what we can do to strengthen the cause, sharing a selection of milestone essays to aid in this effort.
In the shadow of Gaza’s destruction, the Jordanian regime has quietly repressed one of the main sources of the country’s political activism.
On Tuesday, Georgia’s Parliament passed a controversial new law that would brand NGOs and media organizations receiving foreign funding as “foreign agents.” Countries across the globe are following the Russian model and painting liberal-democratic values as malign foreign interference. Read about the strategies autocrats are devising to repress civil society and stifle dissent.
The popular social media app, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance and used by 170 million Americans, is raising national security questions about data privacy and malign foreign influence.
Democratic institutions, norms, and practices have been under threat in India. Should the country’s democracy fail, it will affect not only the lives of 1.4 billion Indians, but also democracy movements around the world.
Political violence is rising in wealthy democracies — not just the United States, but around the world. In a special release from the October issue of the Journal of Democracy, Rachel Kleinfeld and Nicole Bibbins Sedaca argue that political leaders have the power to stoke or stamp out this dangerous cycle of violence.
The Journal of Democracy strives to keep you up to date on the latest developments in global democracy and autocracy. Here are our ten most-read essays over the past month.
Who is Nayib Bukele? Meet the president of El Salvador, the world’s most popular dictator.
Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and Narendra Modi, along with the presidents of Turkey, Iran, and other states are working together to amass power at home and project it abroad. These essays explain how they’re doing this, and what democracies can do to prevent it.
Rachel Kleinfeld and Nicole Bibbins Sedaca detail the dangers of deep polarization and lay out steps that leaders and citizens can take to stop the violence.
