July 1997, Volume 8, Issue 3
The East Asian Prospect: A “Recipe” for Democratic Development
Read the full essay here.
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politician elected at minimum age nickname pacifier self deprecating slogan territory 2019 article July 9
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.
July 2022, Volume 33, Issue 3
How Zelensky Has Changed Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelensky is far more than a brave wartime leader. He began changing the tenor and direction of Ukrainian politics long before the people made him their president.
October 2020, Volume 31, Issue 4
Covid vs. Democracy: Brazil’s Populist Playbook
By highlighting the deficiencies of authoritarian-populist president Jair Bolsonaro’s rule, the covid-19 pandemic is likely to leave Brazil’s democracy intact but even more brittle.
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.
October 2019, Volume 30, Issue 4
Resisting State Capture in South Africa
Despite the lack of electoral turnover in ANC-ruled South Africa, the country’s successful resistance to efforts at “state capture” under former president Jacob Zuma testifies to the vitality of its democracy.
October 2022, Volume 33, Issue 4
How to Compete in Unfair Elections
Opposition movements often boycott rigged polls rather than risk legitimizing an autocrat. It is usually a mistake. Here is the playbook for how one opposition seized the advantage.
April 2020, Volume 31, Issue 2
The Squeeze on African Media Freedom
Sub-Saharan African governments are clamping down on media freedom. More surprising is how many of their citizens appear to support this attack on the press.
January 2024, Volume 35, Issue 1
The Autocrat-in-Training: The Sisi Regime at 10
Egypt’s general-turned-president has spent lavishly, cemented the military’s political and economic control, and, afraid of suffering Mubarak’s fate, become increasingly repressive. But with crushing inflation and everyday people suffering, is Sisi losing his grip?
October 2019, Volume 30, Issue 4
Sudan’s Uprising: The Fall of a Dictator
Amid mass protests, the personalist autocracy of longtime Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir fell to an April 2019 coup. With the country now being governed by a council composed of both opposition leaders and powerful security-service coupmakers, prospects for democratization remain uncertain.
July 2018, Volume 29, Issue 3
Explaining Eastern Europe: Orbán’s Laboratory of Illiberalism
Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party has used its two-thirds majority in parliament to change the constitution, erase checks and balances, and make the electoral system even more majoritarian.
April 2022, Volume 33, Issue 2
Subversion Inc: The Age of Private Espionage
International spying and digital subversion used to be the province of governments. Now anyone who has the cash can order hi-tech snooping and surveillance. This is a threat to the future of freedom.
October 2023, Volume 34, Issue 4
How Financial Secrecy Undermines Democracy
An expansive underworld of hidden wealth lies beneath the everyday economy. This stealth network of tax havens, secret trusts, and offshore accounts is weakening democratic institutions and fueling our worst enemies.
April 2020, Volume 31, Issue 2
Viral Alarm: When Fury Overcomes Fear
The coronavirus outbreak has exposed the corrupt and rotten core of the Chinese Communist Party’s dictatorial rule over China. It is a moment of revelation. Can it also become one that leads to change?
April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
America’s Crisis of Civic Virtue
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.
January 2010, Volume 21, Issue 1
Still Bowling Alone? The Post-9/11 Split
The crisis of the 9/11 terrorist attacks has sparked a surge of increased civic engagement by young people in the United States, but there is also evidence of a growing divide along class lines.
October 2022, Volume 33, Issue 4
The Politics of Enemies
Democracy’s meaning has always been contested. Letting that struggle become a battle between existential foes risks upending the whole democratic project.
Spring 1991, Volume 2, Issue 2
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: the draft constitution of the Russian Republic; a letter from the mayor of Budapest, Hungary to the mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania; the inaugural address Haitian president, Reverend Jean-Bertrand Astride.
April 2023, Volume 34, Issue 2
Iraq’s Mafia State
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.
April 2019, Volume 30, Issue 2
30 Years After Tiananmen: Memory in the Era of Xi Jinping
Xi reads Tiananmen as a cautionary tale, and he has sought to centralize power and reverse years of ideological atrophy. By controlling the past, he is trying to determine how the Chinese will view their present and future.