January 1992, Volume 3, Issue 1
Election Watch
Reports on elections in Argentina, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Colombia, India, Kazakhstan, Mauritius, Poland, Tadzhikistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, Vanuatu, Zambia.
1714 Results
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January 1999, Volume 10, Issue 1
Galina Starovoitova (1946-1998)
On the evening of 20 November 1998, Galina Vasilievna Starovoitova was shot to death outside her St. Petersburg apartment. She was the sixth member of the Russian Duma to have been murdered since that body’s creation in 1993. Most observers agree that this was a political assassination. Starovoitova was a tireless, persistent voice for freedom,…
January 2007, Volume 18, Issue 1
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: remarks delivered at a memorial for Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist and human rights advocate murdered in Moscow on October 7; a statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the coup in Thailand; a speech by Felipe Calderón, his first address as Mexico’s president.
January 2018, Volume 29, Issue 1
Documents on Democracy
International Forum for Democratic Studies report on "Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence"; Emmerson Mnangagwa's inaugural address as interim president of Zimbabwe; letter from Zimbabwean civil society organizations; address by U.K. prime minister Theresa May; statement by former Soviet political prisoners and dissidents.
How Autocrats Control the Media
Autocrats rely on propaganda and censorship to manipulate public opinion and maintain control. Journalists, activists, and the public must work together to counter media manipulation and keep press freedom alive.
January 1995, Volume 6, Issue 1
Election Watch
Reports on elections in Botswana, Brazil, Macedonia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, São Tomé and Príncipe, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Uruguay.
Why the German Far Right Is Beginning to Win
For years, they were a fringe vote. Now they are broadening their agenda, tapping into voter frustration, and getting Germans to favor them once again. | Michael Bröning
April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
Another Russia? Battling KGB, Inc.
The Putin regime is plunging Russia into a deepening crisis. It is time to end the fiction that today's Russia is a democracy.
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
Reading Russia: The Wounds of Lost Empire
There is no consensus about the nature of the political system in Moscow today. Yet how one understands the motivations propelling Russian policy abroad depends on how one understands its regime at home.
July 2020, Volume 31, Issue 3
The Enduring Vulnerability of Liberal Democracy
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.
July 2005, Volume 16, Issue 3
Documents on Democracy
Excerpts from: a joint statement to the Kyrgyz nation issued by the presidents of Georgia and Ukraine; the Madrid Agenda; a letter issued by five hundred Chinese human rights and democracy activists; the third UN Development Programme Arab Human Development Report; a secret audio audio message recorded by Thich Quang Do, deputy leader of the…
January 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1
Putin’s Deep Freeze
A review of Popular Choice and Managed Democracy: The Russian Elections of 1999 and 2000 by Timothy J. Colton and Michael McFaul; Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State by David Satter; and Putin's Russia by Lilia Shevtsova.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
Russia Under Putin: Can Electoral Autocracy Survive?
Vladimir Putin soon must make a fundamental choice: whether to hold on to monolithic power or to adopt a reformist course that could leave him at the center of a battle without any guarantee of success.
Alexei Navalny, In His Own Words
“Every opportunity must be used to speak out . . . I love Russia. My intellect tells me that it is better to live in a free and prosperous country than in a corrupt and impoverished one.”
A Dictator’s Day in Court
Tunisia’s president is looking to strengthen his chokehold on the country. 10 February 2022 By Nate Grubman As much of the world trains its eyes on the looming crisis on Ukraine’s border, Tunisia’s Kais Saied is stepping up efforts to consolidate a dictatorship in what, for the last decade, had been widely hailed as…
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
Reading Russia: The Rules of Survival
The image of Putin’s Russia as an authoritarian oil state attracts many Western analysts because it seems to carry a promise that falling oil prices will bring regime change. Thus, many were convinced that a major economic crisis would force the Kremlin either to open up the system and allow more pluralism and competition, or…
July 2013, Volume 24, Issue 3
Putin versus Civil Society: Outlawing the Opposition
The Putin regime, having faced its first real challenge in the form of mass protests after the 2011 Duma elections, is responding with a series of laws intended to intimidate its civil society opposition, if not stamp it out altogether.
Why Kenya’s Gen Z Has Taken to the Streets
The country’s young people are no longer willing to accept politics without accountability, and the government’s repressive crackdown is only fueling their movement. Gen Z is reshaping the future of Kenyan democracy.
January 2022, Volume 33, Issue 1
How Autocrats Undermine Media Freedom
Information is being weaponized against democracy. Democratic societies need new ways to keep media free, accurate, and authentic.
July 2020, Volume 31, Issue 3
Making Sense of Russia’s Illiberalism
The illiberal credo prominent in Russia’s foreign policy is more than just a clever political ploy. Rather, this outlook reflects the traumatic experience of the 1990s, and it is stoked by young political thinkers, the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Kremlin itself.