
How South Korea’s Next Leader Should Handle Kim Jong-un
South Korea is about to elect a new president. North Korea has changed in recent years. Seoul’s approach to the Kim regime must change to reflect new risks — and Korea’s democratic strength.
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South Korea is about to elect a new president. North Korea has changed in recent years. Seoul’s approach to the Kim regime must change to reflect new risks — and Korea’s democratic strength.
The latest issue of the Journal of Democracy answers some of today’s most pressing questions about democracy, and features essays on Iran, Turkey, Tanzania, the Philippines, and more. But it all goes behind a paywall after July 31. Don’t miss your chance to read the entire issue for free!
The world’s biggest democracy and its brand of Hindu nationalism were top of mind for our readers in 2024. Meanwhile, this “year of elections” raised questions about liberalism, civic virtue, and democratic resilience across the world. The Journal of Democracy covered all of these ideas — plus the biggest stories of the year.
The CCP is engaged in a sprawling campaign to undermine democracy. Governments too often can be lumbering or weak in response. Look to civil society for the creativity and skill to keep the CCP on its heels.
China’s Twentieth Party Congress opened this week in Beijing. President Xi Jinping is widely expected to cement his position as Chinese Communist Party leader for an unprecedented third term.
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.
In many parts of the world, democracy seems to be under threat. Populism is on the rise, as is public dissatisfaction with such key features of liberal democracy as political parties, representative institutions, and minority rights. Even in the long-established democratic regimes of Western Europe and the United States, attachment to democracy is weakening, particularly…
January 10, 2017
The latest issue of the Journal of Democracy covers important and alarming global trends, including political polarization and rising illiberalism, as well the struggle between autocrats and democrats in Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and beyond. Read it before it goes behind a paywall.
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.
Washington Post warns of "Democracy in Retreat," cites new JoD book, Authoritarianism Goes Global.
March 14, 2016
In the days ahead, the West must remain calm—and redouble its support for Ukraine.
Across Latin America, former leaders are keeping a chokehold on their countries’ politics. It’s time their successors break free.
Citizens have lost faith in democracy. Misinformation, disinformation, hyperpolarization, and conspiracies, exacerbated by the modern media environment, have heightened distrust and anger. The following Journal of Democracy essays explore these dynamics and the important role ordinary citizens can play in countering democratic erosion.
As 2024 draws to a close, democracy faces urgent threats: increasing aggression from Russia and China, rapidly advancing AI, heightened polarization, and populist leaders in India and elsewhere bending democracy to their will. Here are the Journal of Democracy’s ten most-read essays over the past month.
It may be the best weapon we have for holding autocrats accountable for their crimes, and the world’s democracies are beginning to rally behind it.
What explains democracy’s declining fortunes — governments’ failure to deliver or institutions’ failure to stop power-hungry leaders? Why Ukraine’s defeat would jeopardize the entire liberal-democratic order. And how Syria must navigate the complexities of transitional justice and sectarian violence now that the hard work of rebuilding has begun.
The Turkish president came to power as an antiestablishment everyman. Twenty years later he is an authoritarian leader clinging to power. Will the forces that catapulted him to power be his demise?
The Cuban opposition recently lost one of its towering figures. Click here to read an exchange between Payá and Václav Havel that appeared in the April 2004 Journal of Democracy.
August 1, 2012
In a year marked by high political drama, economic unrest, and rising assaults on democracy, we at the Journal of Democracy sought to provide insight and analysis of the forces that imperil freedom. Here are our 10 most-read essays of 2021.
The Gulf kingdom has been a rare democratic experiment. But gridlock and the Emir’s mounting impatience with Kuwaiti politics may be on the cusp of bringing it to an end.