July 2015, Volume 26, Issue 3
Weighing the Asian Model
A review of The Nature of Asian Politics by Bruce Gilley.
Articles
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
Transitional Justice and Its Discontents
The impulse to have crimes against humanity investigated and punished, like the impulse behind “truth and reconciliation” commissions, is understandable. But legalism cannot supersede the hard and messy work of politics.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
The Authoritarian Resurgence: Forward to the Past in Russia
Even if Vladimir Putin were to lose his grip on office, the “Russian system” might only wind up exchanging one form of personalized power for another in its endless search for self-perpetuation.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
The Authoritarian Resurgence: Autocratic Legalism in Venezuela
Why do some hybrid regimes remain stable over time, while others become more authoritarian? Venezuela’s autocratic turn has been driven by the ruling party’s declining electoral fortunes and by a foreign policy that has shielded it from international scrutiny.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
The Authoritarian Resurgence: Iran’s Paradoxical Regime
Iran’s authoritarianism is more flexible and more durable than its detractors would hope, yet more fragile and endangered than its defenders claim.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
The Authoritarian Resurgence: Iran Abroad
The Iranian regime has sought to recast conventional principles of human rights and political participation by forging alliances with like-minded regimes and by broadcasting its narrative to an international audience.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
The Authoritarian Resurgence: Saudi Arabia’s Anxious Autocrats
Saudi Arabia’s vast oil wealth sustains the antidemocratic policies that a nervous royal regime uses to defend against the threats and problems that confront it.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
Exits from Military Rule: Lessons for Burma
Burma’s troubled transition is imperiled by the reluctance of the military to loosen its grip. What lessons can the Burmese learn from other East Asian countries that have emerged from military rule?
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement: Beijing’s Broken Promises
China has gone back on its well-documented vow (and solemn treaty obligation) to allow Hong Kong genuine universal suffrage. Abrogated commitments and fake democracy are not the path to a thriving Hong Kong that feels at home within the People’s Republic of China.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement: The Protests and Beyond
The demonstrations of late 2014 captured the world’s attention with their scale, passion, and resourcefulness, but in the end were unable to move dug-in local and national authorities. Yet time is still on the side of the demonstrators.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
The Freedom House Survey for 2014: A Return to the Iron Fist
In a year marked by escalating terrorism, the use of more brutal repression by authoritarian regimes, and Russia’s annexation of a neighboring country’s territory, the state of freedom worsened significantly in nearly every part of the world.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
Patching Things Up in Mozambique
Although elections take place on schedule in Mozambique, they are of dubious quality, and the most recent one was held amid an uneasy peace following renewed outbursts of civil strife. Major new gas and mineral finds promise a shot at greater prosperity, but also hold the threat of a “resource curse.”
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
Millennials and East Asia’s Democratic Future
East Asia’s millennials have grown up in an age of rapid socioeconomic progress, allowing them to become better educated, more urbanized, and more technologically connected than previous generations. Will they use their collective power to become agents of democratic change?
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
Stealing Russia Blind
A review of Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? by Karen Dawisha.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
The “Power-Sharing” Trap
A review of Power Politics in Zimbabwe by Michael Bratton.
January 2015, Volume 26, Issue 1
Is Democracy in Decline?
As the Journal of Democracy celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary, there are serious reasons to worry about the state of democracy.
January 2015, Volume 26, Issue 1
Why Is Democracy Performing So Poorly?
The failure to establish modern, well-governed states has been the Achilles heel of recent democratic transitions, as democratization without state modernization can actually lower the quality of governance.
January 2015, Volume 26, Issue 1
The Weight of Geopolitics
Can democracy prosper when democratic countries are in geopolitical retreat? History cautions against the notion that democracy will inevitably prevail.
January 2015, Volume 26, Issue 1
Crisis and Transition, But Not Decline
Rather than being in decline, democracy is in crisis due to the gap between the democratic ideal and how democracy is actually being practiced. It will survive by transitioning into a new, as yet unknown, form.
January 2015, Volume 26, Issue 1
The Myth of Democratic Recession
In contrast to the conventional wisdom that democracy is in retreat worldwide, the evidence tells a different story: The state of global democracy has been stable over the last decade and is actually better than it was in the 1990s.