April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
Delivery matters, but so do leaders’ actions. Why have so many, in both strong and weak economies, been pushing against democratic constraints on their power, and why have those constraints failed to contain them?
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
When South Korea’s president declared martial law last December, he shocked the country and sparked a political crisis that laid bare deep-seated divisions. Can Korean democracy overcome the nationalist polarization that has always defined it?
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
Propaganda is autocrats’ weapon of first resort, allowing them to rely on persuasion rather than violence to achieve their ends. But citizens have grown savvy, so autocrats are taking a new tack: spreading their messages via private news outlets indirectly controlled by regime proxies.
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
The “third wave” of democracy started in 1974 — or so the story goes. But the crests and crashes of waves of democracy and authoritarianism have been neglected. A close look can help us understand the current moment, when democracy appears to be in retreat.
Kenya’s Shaky Handshake Deals | Alexander Noyes
The country has a long history of power-sharing deals that are sealed with a handshake. The truth is that this type of political bargaining typically does more harm than good.
After Crackdown, Is Turkey an Autocracy? | Berk Esen and Sebnem Gumuscu
Turkey’s president would rather turn his country into a full autocracy than give up power. But the Turkish people are clinging to what remains of their democracy, and they are ready to fight for it.
Why DeepSeek Is So Dangerous | Valentin Weber
The Chinese Communist Party’s newest AI advance is making repression smarter, cheaper, and more deadly. Even worse, they aim to export it to the world.
News & Updates
March 2025
Don’t miss these must-read essays from the Journal of Democracy, free for a limited time, on the Russia-Ukraine war, artificial intelligence, illiberalism, democracy’s ability to deliver, and more.
March 2025
On March 19, Turkish authorities arrested opposition leader and Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on charges of corruption. Really, it was a drive by President Erdoğan to eliminate his main political rival. The following Journal of Democracy essays chronicle Erdoğan’s increasing efforts to undermine Turkish democracy, and the opposition’s efforts to fight back.
Most Read
Forget his excuses. Russia’s autocrat doesn’t worry about NATO. What terrifies him is the prospect of a flourishing Ukrainian democracy.
Turkey’s president would rather turn his country into a full autocracy than give up power. But the Turkish people are clinging to what remains of their democracy, and they are ready to fight for it.
If democracies did a better job “delivering” for their citizens, so the thinking goes, people would not be so ready to embrace antidemocratic alternatives. Not so. This conventional wisdom about democratic backsliding is seldom true and often not accurate at…
The ICC arrest of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte is a shocking blow for the Duterte clan, and the Marcos family isn’t letting up. Is this the political last stand for the Dutertes?
Generative AI can flood the media, internet, and even personal correspondence, sowing confusion for voters and government officials alike. If we fail to act, mounting mistrust will polarize our societies and tear at our institutions.
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By Danielle Allen and E. Glen Weyl
Advanced AI poses twin perils: the collapse of democratic control over key state functions and the concentration of political and economic power in the hands of the few.
Plus the entire January 2024 issue, available free of charge for a limited time.
