January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
Democracies are grappling with an era of transformation: Identity is increasingly replacing economics as the major axis of world politics. Technological change has deepened social fragmentation, and trust in institutions is falling. As our most basic assumptions come under question, can liberal democracy rebuild itself?
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
Is liberal democracy the endpoint of history? The ongoing democratic recession, growing disaffection among citizens, and rising populism pose new challenges to this view. Yet testing Francis Fukuyama’s much-criticized thesis requires us to consider not only liberal democracy’s internal contradictions, but also those of its authoritarian rivals.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
There is still an opportunity to pull the world out of its democratic slump. What is most needed is democratic conviction and resolve.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
In recent years competitive authoritarianism has emerged in some countries with relatively strong democratic traditions and institutions.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
Illiberalism can drive away a country’s young people, and with them the future.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
Robert Michels’s classic work on the “iron law of oligarchy” can help us to understand why there is so much dissatisfaction with representative democracy.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
Anticorruption has become universally accepted as a norm; that may tell us something about why it struggles in practice.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
The mass protests that have taken place in 2019 in Hong Kong and elsewhere show that people’s desire for liberty cannot be extinguished.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
It is imperative to rethink how democracy support fits into today’s turbulent and threatening international political landscape.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
Democratic societies must address the spread of technology developed in authoritarian settings while continuing to uphold democratic norms.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
Lacking any ideas for shoring up Russian society, Putin has settled on picking a fight with Ukraine.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
To grasp why post-Mao China’s remarkable economic development has not aided democracy, we must look first at the policies of top Chinese leaders.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
Why do East and Southeast Asia’s autocracies enjoy more support from their publics than do the region’s democracies?
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
Iran is in the midst of an ideological crisis. Growing numbers of Iranians are rejecting the religious underpinnings of the Supreme Leader’s rule, and turning their backs on the Islamic Republic. The regime’s only response is harsher repression—a response that will deepen the anger that is bringing everyday Iranians out into the streets.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
Demonstrators in Algeria and Sudan have drawn on the experiences of earlier Arab protest movements in their efforts to push for lasting change.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
The country’s hold on electoral democracy is firm, but its claim still to be a liberal democracy is increasingly dubious.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
A review of This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality by Peter Pomerantsev.
October 2019, Volume 30, Issue 4
Despite the lack of electoral turnover in ANC-ruled South Africa, the country’s successful resistance to efforts at “state capture” under former president Jacob Zuma testifies to the vitality of its democracy.
October 2019, Volume 30, Issue 4
The results of the May 2019 elections to the European Parliament—and particularly the growing influence of the populist radical right—reflect a deep transformation of European politics that can largely be traced to the “refugee crisis” of 2015–16.
October 2019, Volume 30, Issue 4
Beyond the commonly cited economic and cultural anxieties afflicting many Europeans, a key factor enabling the rise of populism across Europe has been the failure of mainstream parties on both the left and the right to offer clear and credible policy alternatives.
