485 Results
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
Voters around the world are losing faith in democracy’s ability to deliver and increasingly turning toward more authoritarian alternatives. To restore citizens’ confidence, democracies must show they can make progress without sacrificing accountability.
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. | By Robert Person
April 2023, Volume 34, Issue 2
Although Saddam fell twenty years ago, the politicians who have come after him still think like Baathists. But a new generation has begun making itself heard. It believes in Iraq as a nation and it understands democracy as more than a source of spoils to be divided among groups.
July 2022, Volume 33, Issue 3
The case of Hungary shows how autocrats can rig elections legally, using legislative majorities to change the law and neutralize the opposition at every turn, no matter what strategy they adopt.
October 2021, Volume 32, Issue 4
Thirty years after the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia is firmly in the grip of an autocrat. Where did Russia’s path go wrong?
July 2020, Volume 31, Issue 3
Liberal democracy has drawn its share of false indictments. But like any form of government, it has genuine weaknesses that can at best be managed. How well liberals navigate these inherent tensions may help determine the future of freedom.
April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
The problem for democracy today is not capitalism; it is a decline in public honesty and civility. But there is an opportunity to revive our sense of national community, if we seize it.
Afghanistan taught us that a firehose of unaccountable aid can destroy a country’s democratic future. In Ukraine, we are making the same mistake all over again. | By Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili and Nataliia Shapoval
The country’s military is advancing on the battlefield. If Ukraine defeats Russia’s massive army, the ripple effects will be felt across the globe. | By Francis Fukuyama
“The Journal of Democracy is far and away the most important forum for current debates about the nature and spread of liberal democracy around the world, and an indispensable tool for anybody interested in comparative politics or international relations. It is a model for how to present serious intellectual content in a clear and accessible…
Why are the French protesting this time? Emmanuel Macron is imposing deeply unpopular reforms, and it’s one of the only ways left to check an arrogant and tone deaf president. | Moshik Temkin
Why the Defenders of Liberal Democracy Need to Stand Up (August 2023) If liberal norms and institutions are to prevail, they need to be defended from the left and the right. By Ghia Nodia Why Ukraine Is Critical to Rebuilding Our Democratic Consensus (July 2023) The case for liberal democracy remains powerful. It may…
The last Soviet leader brought down his regime and ended the Cold War. The free world owes him a debt of gratitude. | By Lucan Ahmad Way
In the 1991 classic, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, Samuel P. Huntington offered a new way of understanding democracy’s global trajectory. Amid rising global populism and increasingly aggressive authoritarian leaders, has Huntington’s framework outlived its usefulness?
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
Our rising levels of inequality have put its ideals in crisis. These are the simple principles that can help bring it back from the edge. | Thomas F. Remington
How does a Russian autocrat celebrate Victory Day while losing a war? Expect lies, myths, and propaganda. May 2022 By Olexiy Minakov Every year on May 9, Russia celebrates Victory Day to mark the 1945 triumph of the Soviet Union and its allies over Nazism. The spirit of militant Russian patriotism reaches its apogee on…
The Russian leader declared war on his country’s independent journalists. But Russian media outsmarted him by taking their operations overseas. They are now reaching more people than ever before. | Roman Badanin
In a new online exclusive, Journal of Democracy cofounder Marc Plattner examines both what unites and distinguishes liberalism and democracy — and what liberal democracies must do to remain free.
"A useful compilation popularizing the work of an influential journal… The Journal of Democracy is an effective tribune for mainstream U.S. thinking on these issues."—Political Studies
