In a few months, Indians will vote on whether to give Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP a third term in power. The last five years under the Hindu-nationalist party have been marked by heightened repression and illiberalism—with regime critics, independent journalists, and the country’s Muslim minority suffering intense persecution. In a country that increasingly resembles the Jim Crow American South, can the opposition unite to halt India’s authoritarian turn?
Plus: How autocrats around the world are using LGBTIQ rights to turn citizens against liberal democracy; why Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi may be more vulnerable than he appears; and the need to create new ways of governing AI to protect democracies from mounting risks.
Read the Journal of Democracy’s just-released January 2024 issue, available for free on Project MUSE through January 31.
- White supremacy and Hindu supremacy have similar political objectives. Ashutosh Varshney and Connor Staggs contend that the BJP is now forging a regime of exclusion and oppression as brutal as the Jim Crow South.
- The BJP is ruling with a heavier hand than ever before. Yet, argues Rahul Mukherji, these may be the ideal conditions for a democratic revival—if the opposition seizes the moment.
- Ayesha Jalal explores Pakistan’s current era of instability created by the schism between the military establishment and former prime minister Imran Khan.
- Populism is a mortal threat to liberal democracy. But Kurt Weyland shows that would-be strongmen require an extraordinary set of circumstances to succeed.
- Autocrats are claiming that LGBTIQ rights—a proxy for liberal democracy—are a threat to the family, the church, and the nation, warn Phillip Ayoub and Kristina Stoeckl.
- Advanced AI poses twin perils, explain Danielle Allen and E. Glen Weyl: the collapse of democratic control over key state functions and the concentration of political and economic power in the hands of the few.
- East Central Europe is divided over the war in Ukraine. Anna Grzymała-Busse argues that support for the besieged country rests not on geography or memories of Soviet domination, but on the interests of elites.
- Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi is heading into his third term amid economic turmoil, writes Hesham Sallam. Will extravagant spending and increased repression be enough to keep him in power
Also in this issue:
- The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar are spreading their influence across borders. Christopher Davidson delves into this dangerous new chapter between the Gulf monarchies and the West.
- Judges in Brazil, Columbia, and Mexico are showing a surprising resolve in defending democracy, write Diego A. Zambrano, Ludmilla Martins da Silva, Rolando Garcia Miron, and Santiago P. Rodríguez.
- The political flexibility of democracy that allows separatist movements to flourish also provides the tools to snuff them out. This paradox, posits Omar G. Encarnación, explains why they rarely succeed.
View the full Table of Contents here.
For more, visit the JoD Online:
- The Most Important Elections You Just Missed by Rahul Mukherji, Harsh Mander, and Seyed Hossein Zarhani
- Why Did Argentina Just Elect a Radical Right-Wing Political Outsider by Virginia Oliveros and Emilia Simison
- The World Has Become Flatter for Authoritarian Regimes by Christopher Walker
- How Guatemalans Are Defending Their Democracy by Manuel Meléndez-Sánchez and Laura Gamboa
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