2850 Results
April 2016, Volume 27, Issue 2
Seymour Martin Lipset argued that economic development would enlarge the middle class, and that the middle class would support democracy. To what extent will this general proposition prove true of China?
April 2014, Volume 25, Issue 2
Nelson Mandela, who died in late 2013, fought for freedom for all the people of South Africa and masterfully guided his country’s transition to a nonracial democracy. His record on foreign policy is more ambiguous, but also instructive.
April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
The liberal emphasis on unhindered mobility comes with costs, particularly for those unable to leave.
January 2021, Volume 32, Issue 1
Like the “transition paradigm” before it, the concept of democratic backsliding threatens to flatten our perceptions of complex political realities. Examples from East-Central Europe illustrate the ambiguous dynamics at play in many troubled democracies.
April 2019, Volume 30, Issue 2
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.
October 2016, Volume 27, Issue 4
Evidence from social science and history suggests that China is entering a “transition zone” that will threaten its capacity to maintain both authoritarian rule and high levels of economic growth.
October 2015, Volume 26, Issue 4
Data from the Arab Barometer suggest that Arabs have not rejected democracy. In fact, they still by and large believe in it and want it.
April 2014, Volume 25, Issue 2
After four years of sharing power with the opposition, Zimbabwe’s longtime president Robert Mugabe and his party claimed a huge victory in the 2013 elections. What accounts for the opposition’s stunning electoral decline?
October 2011, Volume 22, Issue 4
Singapore has long been known for combining economic development with strict limits on political opposition. But its 2011 parliamentary elections suggest that it is moving toward “competitive authoritarianism.”
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
For more than two decades, President Yoweri Museveni has been building an authoritarian regime that answers closely to his personal will.
January 2007, Volume 18, Issue 1
The 1997 financial crisis undermined the argument for a putative “Asian-style democracy” that prioritized economic development over political liberalization. Yet recent electoral and other reforms have set the stage for the emergence of a genuine “Asian model” of democracy.
July 2006, Volume 17, Issue 3
Reforming national intelligence communities is a critical, if often overlooked, task facing democratizing countries. Happily, intelligence agencies brought under civilian, democratic control may also becomes better at their core job of protecting free nations from deadly threats.
January 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1
Mexico’s 2003 congressional elections confirmed both the transition to fully competitive politics and the persistence of structural deficiencies associated with a multiparty presidential system.
April 2011, Volume 22, Issue 2
A review of Witness to Transformation: Refugee Insights into North Korea by Marcus Noland and Stephan Haggard.
April 2018, Volume 29, Issue 2
Reports on elections in Chile, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Liberia, Nepal, Russia, and Sierra Leone.
April 2016, Volume 27, Issue 2
Excerpts from: the inaugural address of Argentine president Mauricio Macri; victory speech by Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-Wen
January 2002, Volume 13, Issue 1
Excerpts from: British prime minister Tony Blair’s speech on the events of September 11 and their aftermath; the “Inter-American Democratic Charter” adopted by the Organization of American States; UN secretary-general Kofi Annan’s speech accepting the National Democratic Institute’s Averell Harriman Award; Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader and Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s “Speech for the Nation.”
The drama of the country’s divided government just played out in a failed, high-stakes vote to recall two-dozen opposition legislators. How both sides respond could determine the fate of Taiwan’s democracy.
April 2018, Volume 29, Issue 2
Inaugural address by Liberian president George Weah; open letter by Iranian activists and intellectuals; testimony by China analyst Clive Hamilton before the Australian Parliament's Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.
