Articles

October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4

What Democracy Does . . . And Does Not Do

People are losing faith in democracy’s ability to deliver social progress. But are democracies better than autocracies at promoting economic growth, alleviating poverty, and creating healthier, more educated, and more peaceful societies? On all counts, the answer is yes.

October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4

Why Bitcoin Is Freedom Money

Today, governments can see who buys what, who pays whom, and who donates to which cause. But they cannot easily trace or confiscate Bitcoin. The digital currency offers a lifeline to democratic movements operating in the most repressive places.

October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4

The Golden Age of Transnational Repression

Authoritarian regimes are targeting exiles and diaspora communities in more places than ever before. Activists, journalists, and regular people living abroad must watch their backs, because these governments now have the power to suppress dissent even outside their borders.

October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4

Cuba’s Mafia State

When the Soviet Union fell, Cuba did not democratize but instead was turned into a raw kleptocracy by Communist Party insiders. Decades later, this “mafia” has driven the country into the worst crisis in its history.

October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4

How Oppositions Turn Authoritarian

Conventional wisdom says that, once in power, opposition parties will return backsliding countries to the democratic path. In reality, not only is this not true, but it is not uncommon for the opposition to adopt the autocratic habits of the regime they replaced.

October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4

Why Bolivia’s MAS Collapsed

Evo Morales’s Movement Toward Socialism transformed Bolivian politics. But after almost two decades in power, the party is unraveling. No longer the country’s anchor, the MAS has become a major driver of instability and political decay.

October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4

Is Costa Rica’s Democracy Failing?

Although an island of stability and democracy in a region often short of both, Costa Ricans’ faith in government is declining as the challenge of financing its costly welfare state grows. This democratic stalwart is no longer immune to the appeal of populism.

October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4

Why Senegal’s Democracy Survived

After a turbulent election cycle, with an incumbent leader postponing the vote and putting his thumb on the scale, voters elected a new president and, for the third time in Senegalese history, a new ruling party. How did the country keep its democracy from crumbling?

October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4

AI’s Real Dangers for Democracy

Artificial intelligence and its effects on democracy are a matter of choice, not fate. The concerns are longer term than the recent spate of worry about “generative” AI would suggest. The democratic conversation about AI has hardly begun.

October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4

China’s AI-Powered Surveillance State

The Chinese Communist Party is dreaming an authoritarian techno-dream that is a democrat’s nightmare: ever more fine-grained state control made possible by using AI networks to pry and spy everywhere. But human unpredictability remains a force the party-state cannot tame.

July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3

The Myth of Democratic Resilience

We must face an uncomfortable truth: Democracies often fail to reverse the damage after an authoritarian lapse, if they manage to recover at all. If we are to make our political systems more resilient, we must steel democracy against authoritarianism before it is too late.

July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3

The Authoritarian Argument

Authoritarian regimes are not lawless. Rather, autocrats take to the courtroom not only to enforce their will but to justify their rule. So how do they appeal to reason? How do they rationalize their undemocratic turn?

July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3

Religious Exclusion and the Origins of Democracy

The most challenging type of diversity for democracy is religious diversity. This also helps explain why modern democracy first took root in Western Europe: Religiously homogenous populations went hand in hand with the early formation of parliaments.

July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3

Tanzania’s Autocratic Reform-Washing

President Samia Suluhu Hassan came into office promising democratic reforms. Four years later, it is clear she is more of a performer than a reformer. Far from delivering on her promises to unwind Tanzania’s authoritarian machinery, she is relying on the repressive tools we know so well.

July 2025, Volume 36, Issue 3

Secularism, Islamism, and the Future of Turkey

The political struggle between President Erdoğan and opposition leader Ekrem İmamoğlu is a fierce battle for the country’s democracy. But it goes deeper than that. It is also a struggle between Islamist and secularist visions of Turkey.