Mexico’s Victory: The Democratic Revelation
Vicente Fox’s victory in Mexico’s July 2000 presidential election revealed the fundamental changes that had been taking place under the veil of governmental continuity.
Volume 11, Issue 4
Vicente Fox’s victory in Mexico’s July 2000 presidential election revealed the fundamental changes that had been taking place under the veil of governmental continuity.
The beauty of Mexico’s transition to democracy lay in the way it evolved gradually and peacefully over the course of a decade.
Although Fox’s National Action Party (PAN) is frequently portrayed as a reactionary party, it is better understood as a liberal-democratic alternative to the former ruling party’s authoritarianism.
Any serious discussion of Mexico’s future must take into account its relations with the United States.
Are all, or only some, of the world’s religious systems politically compatible with democracy?
An Egyptian civil-society leader responds to the closing down of his organization and the allegations against him by state prosecutors.
Global trends toward economic and political liberalization are presenting East Asian and Latin American democracies with increasingly convergent international opportunities and constraints.
Such a comparison clearly shows a higher prevalence of democracy in Latin America and a better economic performance in East Asia. The two regions are likely to converge on both dimensions, but the gaps will remain.
Despite the persistent doomsaying about the political consequences of untrammeled international capital flows, financial liberalization may actually contribute to democratic consolidation.
The Editors’ introduction to “Is Iran Democratizing?”
In hotly contested parliamentary elections, candidates supportive of President Khatami’s reforms won an overwhelming victory.
Once again, a reformist electoral victory has been followed by political setbacks. The key to understanding this paradoxical pattern lies in the unique theocratic constitutional structure of the Islamic Republic.
The uneasy accommodation of competing visions of authority that has characterized Iran’s political system since 1979 is a familiar phenomenon in the Middle East and elsewhere.
The “Fourth Generation” of Iranian intellectuals has a vital role to play in strengthening civil society and fostering democratization.
Four excerpts from the Iranian press-on elections and democracy and on religious intolerance and intellectual pluralism-suggest the extent to which democratic thinking has gained a foothold in Iran.
Recent studies of democracy in Latin America overlook the role of civil society as an agent of accountability.
A nongovernmental organization, Citizens Organized to Monitor Voting (GONG), helped ensure the transparency of Croatia’s recent elections.
A review of Jack Snyder's From Voting to Violence.
Reports on elections in Ethiopia, Haiti, Lebanon, Mexico, Mongolia, Paraguay, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.
Excerpts from: a victory speech by Mexican president-elect Vicente Fox; a final declaration of a conference entitled “Towards a Community of Democracies”; the “Declaration of Unity” signed by democratic activists from 11 Asian countries.