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Johns Hopkins Univ. Press
January 2005

January 2005, Volume 16, Number 1

Building Democracy After Conflict

  1. An Overview

    2. Marc F. Plattner
    In the 15 years since the Journal of Democracy's inception, democracy has made extraordinary progress. But no challenge is greater than building democratic institutions in postconflict situations.

  2. Lessons from Iraq

    3. Larry Diamond
    The U.S.-led reconstruction effort has so far failed to establish democratic institutions in Iraq. But as troubled as that effort has been, it provides valuable lessons for future nation-building endeavors.

  3. Bullets, Ballots, and Poppies in Afghanistan

    4. Larry Goodson
    By mid-2003, Afghanistan appeared in danger of reverting to "failed-state" status. Happily, the resilience of the Afghans plus some policy changes by the United States and its partners have put things on the right track, though daunting challenges remain.

  4. The "Helsinki Moment" in Southeastern Europe

    5. Gerald Knaus and Marcus Cox
    Why has the European Union, which has been so successful in transforming its candidate countries, failed in its efforts to promote democracy and development in Bosnia and Kos-ovo?

  5. Constitutional Medicine

    6. Andrew Reynolds
    The art or science of designing constitutions can benefit from the insights and methods that undergird the arts and sciences of medical diagnosis and therapy.

  6. The Case for Shared Sovereignty

    7. Stephen D. Krasner
    In the conditions of today's world, countries that are in a bad way as regards some aspects of their governance may benefit from agreeing to share portions of their sovereignty with external actors.

  7. "Stateness" First

    8. Francis Fukuyama
    World events-recent, current, and almost certainly to come-drive home the truth that before there can be a democratic state, there must first be a functioning state, period. Creating workable states where they have been destroyed or have barely existed yields to none among the challenges of our time.
The IMF and Democratic Governance
Devesh Kapur and Moisés Naím
Like many other world-governance bodies, the International Monetary Fund is a necessarily nondemocratic organization that cannot help but have an impact on democracy's prospects in poorer countries.

The 2004 Freedom House Survey: Worrisome Signs, Modest Shifts
Arch Puddington and Aili Piano
Modest progress in the Muslim-majority countries is complemented by mass mobilization for democracy and freedom in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia ranks as Not Free for the first time since the fall of communism.

The Referendum in Venezuela

  1. One Act in an Unfinished Drama

    2. Jennifer McCoy
    Both the supporters and the foes of President Hugo Chávez went into the August 2004 recall hoping for a complete and final win. While Chávez kept his job and even rides high, Venezuela is still nowhere close to closure.

  2. Elections versus Democracy

    3. Miriam Kornblith
    While charges of electronic fraud in the actual voting or vote-counting are unproven, the dubious and even illegal tactics that the Chávez regime used throughout the larger process point to rampant "institutional fraud" that is undermining Venezuelan democracy.
Hong Kong's Democrats Stumble
Joseph Y.S. Cheng
The democratic forces had an uphill climb going into the September 2004 legislative elections, but they made unforced errors as well. What were these, and how can the democrats do better next time?

Elections in India: Behind the Congress Comeback
Steven I. Wilkinson
To everyone's surprise, the Congress party defeated the incumbent BJP in the April-May 2004 parliamentary elections. What caused this political turnaround, and what will be its effects?

Books in Review

What's in Store for China
Merle Goldman
A review of China's Democratic Future: How It Will Happen and Where It Will Lead by Bruce Gilley.

Election Watch

Reports on recent elections in Afghanistan, Bostwana, Czech Republic, Ghana, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Namibia, Niger, Romania, Slovenia, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Uruguay.

Documents on Democracy

  • An excerpt from a declaration issued by the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba, after its meeting in Prague on September 17-19.

  • An open letter issued by leading European and North American democrats to the heads of state and government of the EU and NATO decrying Russian president Vladimir Putin's series of "reforms" aimed at further centralization of power in Russia.
  • Excerpts from a statement issued by more than forty leading civil society groups from the Middle East and North Africa and presented at the G-8 and Arab world meeting in New York on September 24.
  • Excerpts from an open letter issued by leading democrats around the world to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in response to the initiation of criminal proceedings against Su-mate, a Venezuelan NGO working to educate voters.
  • Excerpts from a statement issued by a Workshop of ASEAN Parliamentarians on the Myanmar Issue, held in Kuala Lumpur on November 26-28.
  • Excerpts from the December 7 inaugural speech of Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's first elected president.
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