The Journal of Democracy has analyzed democracy’s fortunes across the globe, from Ukraine to Afghanistan and the Philippines, from Hungary to Tunisia. Here are our top-ten most-read essays from 2022.
In 2022, we began publishing shorter, exclusively online pieces. No topic mattered more to you than Russia’s disastrous war in Ukraine. We also published essays from the sharpest minds on protests in China and Iran, instability in Pakistan, and more.
Pulitzer-Prize winning historian and Journal of Democracy editorial board member Anne Applebaum delivered the 19th Annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture, and then sat down for a conversation with Journal coeditor William J. Dobson. Read more here.
December 1, 2022
The 2022 World Cup has just kicked off in Qatar. Long before the first match, the small Arab monarchy made a bet that investing billions in the “beautiful game” might do wonders for their reputation, too.
Host Justin Kempf interviews Michael Ignatieff, author of “The Politics of Enemies,” on the contentious nature of democratic politics—and what happens when the tension grows too great.
As political polarization deepens in the world’s democracies, political violence is on the rise. And in the wake of these acts, conspiracy theories often bloom. We offer three essays that look at these forces that threaten to upend democracy, and what must be done to overcome them.
At the Chinese Communist Party’s Twentieth National Congress last week, Xi Jinping secured a third term as Party secretary. But the most important development wasn’t Xi extending his rule or the Party’s elevation of new leaders. Rather, Xi made clear that the era of Chinese economic growth above all else was over. Now the Party’s…
China’s Twentieth Party Congress opened this week in Beijing. President Xi Jinping is widely expected to cement his position as Chinese Communist Party leader for an unprecedented third term.
Fareed Zakaria cites Pei’s “China: Totalitarianism’s Long Shadow” to explain the durability of China’s single-party regime.
The LA Times’ Matt Pearce cites JoD editor Will Dobson and cofounder Larry Diamond in his article on U.S. media’s growing efforts to defend democracy.
Larry Diamond, the leading scholar of democracy, helped to found the Journal of Democracy more than 32 years ago. “Democracy’s Arc: From Resurgent to Imperiled,” published on the eve of the war in Ukraine, was his final essay as our coeditor. But Larry penned numerous pieces for the Journal. Ten of these landmark essays are…
Journal coeditors Will Dobson and Tarek Masoud joined former coeditor Larry Diamond for a conversation on the future of democracy. At the event, Diamond was awarded NED’s Democracy Service Medal.
May 18, 2022
The International Forum for Democratic Studies’ Sharp Power Research Portal is a tool for researchers, journalists, policymakers, and activists to recognize patterns of authoritarian influence in several domains. It includes over 750 resources providing research, reporting, and analysis.
The Journal of Democracy has been covering the roots of Putin’s obsession with Ukraine for nearly 20 years. Here are 7 essential reads on the origins of the conflict, and what brought us to this dangerous moment.
In an essay for Foreign Policy based on his article for the January issue of the Journal, James Loxton shows how one of Latin America’s most unequal and corrupt states is also one of its freest and wealthiest.
January 28, 2022
In a year marked by high political drama, economic unrest, and rising assaults on democracy, we at the Journal of Democracy sought to provide insight and analysis of the forces that imperil freedom. Here are our 10 most-read essays of 2021.
Tarek Masoud, a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Democracy, is professor of public policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is the author of Counting Islam: Religion, Class, and Elections in Egypt (2014) and of The Arab Spring: Pathways of Repression and Reform with Jason Brownlee and…
December 10, 2021
Nilay Saiya, whose essay “Why Freedom Defeats Terrorism” appeared in our April issue, argues in a Slate piece based on his article that civil liberties—not crackdowns—are the key to preventing terrorism.
In an interview with The Signal and a Foreign Policy piece based on his April article in the Journal, Christian Welzel argues that the global shift toward democratic values runs deeper than today’s autocratic upswell.
