October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Pakistan After Musharraf: An Emerging Civil Society?
The military regime opened up the media sector to more competition and private broadcasters in 2002, and the ramifications turned out to be vast.
Articles
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Zimbabwe’s Long Agony
Once hailed as liberators, Zimbabwe’s ruling party now clings to power through violent repression. How did the country’s founding father become its dictator, and what patterns in his party’s past foretold such an outcome?
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy
The Editors’ introduction to “Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy.”
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy: Why Democracies Fail
Many of today’s developing-world and postcommunist democracies are at risk of reversal. What are the key factors that lead to democratic collapse?
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy: The Latin American Experience
"The Latin American Experience” argues that democratic stability requires policies that limit the society’s degree of substantive economic and social inequality.
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy: Postcommunist Welfare States
The more-democratic postcommunist countries have maintained stronger social safety nets than their authoritarian counterparts, but they must reassess their welfare policies to address emerging social challenges.
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy: Growth Without Prosperity in Africa
Fifteen years after the wave of democratization crested in Africa, the region still grapples with an economic malaise that is disappointing popular expectations and undermining the legitimacy of electoral regimes.
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Bolivia’s Constitutional Breakdown
Bolivia now finds itself locked in a stalemate between forces bent on “refounding” the country and an eastern region insisting on greater autonomy.
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Kenya: Back from the Brink?
After the ethnic violence that marred its 2007 presidential election, Kenya must reform its institutions to better represent its diverse polity.
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Thailand Since the Coup
Torn between populism and those who fail to respect democratic limits in combating it, Thailand badly needs to locate a middle ground where the best of its old traditions can help it adjust to the new challenges that it faces.
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Georgia’s Year of Turmoil
A domestic political crisis began brewing in Georgia long before the current conflict with Russia. Since the Rose Revolution, the country has been troubled by flawed elections, a “superpresidency,” and a malleable constitution.
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Mistaken Identity
A review of Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy by Natan Sharansky.
July 2008, Volume 19, Issue 3
Islamist Parties and Democracy
The Editors’ introduction to “Islamist Parties and Democracy.”
July 2008, Volume 19, Issue 3
Islamist Parties and Democracy: Three Kinds of Movements
The rise of Islamist parties poses new challenges to efforts to understand the relationship between Islam and democracy. A diverse group of authors investigates this new phenomenon and its implications for the future of democracy in the Middle East.
July 2008, Volume 19, Issue 3
Islamist Parties and Democracy: Going Back to the Origins
The rise of Islamist parties poses new challenges to efforts to understand the relationship between Islam and democracy. A diverse group of authors investigates this new phenomenon and its implications for the future of democracy in the Middle East.
July 2008, Volume 19, Issue 3
Islamist Parties and Democracy: Are They Democrats? Does It Matter?
The journalistic and policy communities have been alive with speculation as to whether Islamist groups involved in politics—including Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Palestine’s Hamas— are true believers in democracy or calculating pragmatists who, in Steven Cook’s words, are “seeking to use democratic procedures in order to advance an antidemocratic agenda.”
July 2008, Volume 19, Issue 3
Islamist Parties and Democracy: Turkey’s AKP in Power
The rise of Islamist parties poses new challenges to efforts to understand the relationship between Islam and democracy. A diverse group of authors investigates this new phenomenon and its implications for the future of democracy in the Middle East.
July 2008, Volume 19, Issue 3
Islamist Parties and Democracy: Participation Without Power
Read the full essay here. The debate on the compatibility of Islamism and democracy has tended to focus on two main scenarios. In the first, Islamist political parties become agents for democratization through their participation in freely held elections. In the second, Islamists use the democratic process to gain control and establish an antidemocratic regime—the…
July 2008, Volume 19, Issue 3
Islamist Parties and Democracy: Institutions Make the Difference
Read the full essay here. Political Islam is often cited as the key challenge to democratization in Muslim nations, but deep currents of authoritarianism may prove more of an obstacle. Traditions of monarchy, military rule, and weak civic institutions block the path of democratic transition throughout the Muslim world. Political Islam does of course present…
July 2008, Volume 19, Issue 3
Islamist Parties and Democracy: Why They Can’t be Democratic
Read the full essay here. This article makes a case of the basic distinction between Islam and Islamism and presents three central arguments: 1. through religious reforms and a rethinking of the Islamic doctrine, the cultural system of Islam can be put in harmony with democracy, 2. this (first) argument does not apply to Islamism…