January 2012, Volume 23, Issue 1
Morocco: Outfoxing the Opposition
Morocco was not immune to the 2011 upheavals in the Arab world, but the country’s monarchy deftly managed the crisis through cosmetic constitutional reform.
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January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
Rejuvenating Democracy Promotion
It is imperative to rethink how democracy support fits into today’s turbulent and threatening international political landscape.
April 2018, Volume 29, Issue 2
Brazil: The Costs of Multiparty Presidentialism
The massive corruption revealed by Brazil’s “Operation Car Wash” points to fundamental flaws in multiparty presidential systems, where presidents must find ways to build coalitions in fragmented legislatures.
July 2011, Volume 22, Issue 3
Belarus: A Tale of Two Elections
Strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s suspiciously lopsided 2010 electoral victory—and subsequent crackdown on dissent—may seem like a repeat of the events of 2006, but much has changed in the interval, and his regime is much more precarious today.
April 2010, Volume 21, Issue 2
Mozambique’s Slide into One Party Rule
Once touted as a regional success story, Mozambique has been backsliding toward one-party-dominant rule, and has now slipped off the Freedom House list of electoral democracies. How and why did this happen?
January 2009, Volume 20, Issue 1
Hong Kong’s Democrats Hold Their Own
A decade after the handover of their city to China, Hong Kong’s “pandemocrats” remain able to stand their ground at the ballot box.
October 2004, Volume 15, Issue 4
Debate: The Reality of Muslim Exceptionalism
The notion that the Muslim world as a whole does not suffer from a deficit in terms of competitive democracy is apealing, but rests on evidence and assumptions that cannot withstand critical scrutiny.
April 2019, Volume 30, Issue 2
Populists in Power
The historical record since 1945 gives us a picture of how populists operate once they hold political power. The record shows that populism is inimical to liberal democracy, and not a corrective to some of its failings.
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July 2016, Volume 27, Issue 3
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: a letter by Thich Quang Do, Supreme Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and a leading human-rights advocate, to U.S. president Barack Obama; a declaration by prominent Latin American political leaders and activists calling for political and social opening in Cuba; the inaugural address of Taiwan’s new president Tsai Ing-wen.
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.
April 2021, Volume 32, Issue 2
The Freedom House Survey for 2020: Democracy in a Year of Crisis
The year 2020 saw the global weakening of democratic norms reinforced by authoritarian influence campaigns, crackdowns on protest movements, and the use and abuse of new powers adopted in the name of responding to the covid-19 pandemic.
July 2016, Volume 27, Issue 3
25 Years After the USSR: What’s Gone Wrong?
A quarter-century after the Soviet breakup, democracy has hardly fared well across the vast Eurasian landmass. Why has this seemingly promising gain for freedom produced such disappointing results?
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
The Puzzle of Authoritarian Legitimacy
Why do East and Southeast Asia’s autocracies enjoy more support from their publics than do the region’s democracies?
October 2019, Volume 30, Issue 4
The 2019 EU Elections: Moving the Center
The results of the May 2019 elections to the European Parliament—and particularly the growing influence of the populist radical right—reflect a deep transformation of European politics that can largely be traced to the “refugee crisis” of 2015–16.
January 2015, Volume 26, Issue 1
Crisis and Transition, But Not Decline
Rather than being in decline, democracy is in crisis due to the gap between the democratic ideal and how democracy is actually being practiced. It will survive by transitioning into a new, as yet unknown, form.
January 2011, Volume 22, Issue 1
Latin America’s Growing Security Gap
Striking the right balance between freedom and security is hard, especially in Latin America. Hybrid forces combining military and police elements may be the best means for meeting security challenges without imperiling freedom.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
Transitional Justice and Its Discontents
The impulse to have crimes against humanity investigated and punished, like the impulse behind “truth and reconciliation” commissions, is understandable. But legalism cannot supersede the hard and messy work of politics.
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
China Since Tiananmen: Authoritarian Impermanence
Like all contemporary nondemocratic systems, the Chinese system suffers from weak legitimacy at the level of regime type. The most likely form of transition for China remains the model of Tiananmen, when three elements came together: a robust plurality of disaffected citizens, a catalytic event, and a split in the leadership. Had China chosen the…
July 2024, Volume 35, Issue 3
African Popular Protest and Political Change
There is a troubling tension around “people power” in Africa today: African social movements are among the most successful at ousting autocrats. But the continent’s entrenched antidemocratic institutions leave these victories highly vulnerable to reversal.