October 2002, Volume 13, Issue 4
Democratization in the Arab World?: Stirrings in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia would seem to exemplify full-blown authoritarianism. Yet there are trends pushing the country toward more open politics.
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October 2002, Volume 13, Issue 4
Democratization in the Arab World?: Yemen’s Aborted Opening
While President Ali ABdallah Salih continues to call Yemen an ’emerging democracy,’ it more closely resembles athe autocracy of the pre-unification North.
October 2002, Volume 13, Issue 4
Pluralism by Default in Moldova
During the 1990s, politics in the small post-Soviet state of Moldova was more competitive than anyone would have expected. Yet there was less to this surprising pluralism than met the eye.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
Middle East Studies After 9/11: Time for an Audit
Talk about the Middle East and those who study it has become understandably heated. But we can learn more through a calm assessment of the achievements and weaknesses of this field.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
Middle East Studies After 9/11: Islamists and the Politics of Consensus
Middle Eastern autocracies rely ever more on repression of both their Islamist and secular critics, and therefore increasingly fear that any opening will be uncontrollable. Is there a way out?
July 2023, Volume 34, Issue 3
The Authoritarian Roots of India’s Democracy
To say that Indian democracy is backsliding misunderstands the country’s history and the challenges it faces: A certain authoritarianism is embedded in India’s constitution and political structures.
October 2016, Volume 27, Issue 4
The Specter Haunting Europe: The Unraveling of the Post-1989 Order
What some had thought would be the “end of history” has instead turned out to be the “new world disorder.” Democratic liberalism may have no new ideological rival, but older identities are powerfully reasserting themselves.
April 2023, Volume 34, Issue 2
Why Monarchies Still Reign
Oppositions in monarchies don’t have to stage revolutions to win freedom: Monarchies are as compatible with democracy as they are with autocracy. The challenge for those who would remove a king is not to fall for the promises of reform that never come.
October 2022, Volume 33, Issue 4
Rising to the Sharp Power Challenge
While a handful of democracies have responded effectively to this corrosive form of authoritarian influence, most societies are dangerously underequipped. New strategies are urgently needed.
April 2016, Volume 27, Issue 2
The Freedom House Survey for 2015: Anxious Dictators, Wavering Democrats
In 2015, the tenth consecutive year of decline in global freedom, the world was battered by overlapping crises, spurring harsh authoritarian crackdowns and revealing the leading democracies’ lack of conviction.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
Patching Things Up in Mozambique
Although elections take place on schedule in Mozambique, they are of dubious quality, and the most recent one was held amid an uneasy peace following renewed outbursts of civil strife. Major new gas and mineral finds promise a shot at greater prosperity, but also hold the threat of a “resource curse.”
July 2014, Volume 25, Issue 3
El Salvador’s Beleaguered Democracy
In February 2014, Salvadorans narrowly elected as president a former FMLN guerrilla commander, but he will have to deal with a dire economy and horrific levels of crime.
April 2014, Volume 25, Issue 2
Shifting Tides in South Asia: Sri Lanka’s Postwar Descent
With the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in a 26-year civil war, Sri Lanka had a chance for genuine reconciliation, but that chance is being squandered by the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Kenya: Back from the Brink?
After the ethnic violence that marred its 2007 presidential election, Kenya must reform its institutions to better represent its diverse polity.
April 2008, Volume 19, Issue 2
Trends in Democracy Assistance: What Has the United States Been Doing?
Democracy assistance has been a growing priority for the United States since the end of the Cold War. The record shows that its focus goes well beyond elections and other procedural dimensions of democracy.
October 2007, Volume 18, Issue 4
Iran’s Resilient Civil Society: The Student Movement’s Struggle
They are good signs for the future of democracy in Iran, but it will take time and energy to organize these promising pieces into a greater democracy movement.
July 2003, Volume 14, Issue 3
Lessons from Bosnia and Herzegovinia: The Limits of Electoral Engineering
This troubled corner of Europe has become a test of the ability of outside experts and carefully designed institutions to overcome a legacy of intense ethnocommunal conflict. How are they faring?
April 2017, Volume 28, Issue 2
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: U.S. president Donald J. Trump’s inaugural address; remarks by U.S. vice-president Mike Pence and U.S. senator John McCain at the Munich Security Conference; speeches by Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis, and the Gambia’s new president Adama Barrow; and NED president Carl Gershman’s remarks before the Lithuanian parliament.
January 2022, Volume 33, Issue 1
Exchange: Why the Future Is (Still) Democratic
The “democratic deconsolidation” thesis is overblown. Emancipative values continue to spread worldwide, and clearly point to brighter democratic days ahead.
January 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1
Europe Moves Eastward: Beyond the New Borders
By expanding itself eastward, the EU has not so much settled the questions surrounding the “borders” of Europe as it has displaced them, changing their focus to take in new areas and new issues.