What’s causing the global democratic recession, democracy’s failure to deliver or power-hungry leaders? What would a Ukrainian loss to Russia mean for democracies around the world? And how should Syria approach building a just and democratic society?
The latest issue of the Journal of Democracy offers incisive essays by Francis Fukuyama, Chris Dann and Beatriz Magaloni, Serhii Plokhy, and Lisa Wedeen on these pressing questions, plus much more.
Don’t miss your chance to read the entire issue for free through April 30!
Delivering for Democracy: Why Results Matter
Voters around the world are losing faith in democracy’s ability to deliver and increasingly turning toward more authoritarian alternatives. To restore citizens’ confidence, democracies must show they can make progress without sacrificing accountability.
Francis Fukuyama, Chris Dann, and Beatriz MagaloniBeyond Performance: Why Leaders Still Matter
Delivery matters, but so do leaders’ actions. Why have so many, in both strong and weak economies, been pushing against democratic constraints on their power, and why have those constraints failed to contain them?
Thomas Carothers and Brendan HartnettDavid vs. Goliath: Defeating Russian Autocracy
Ukraine versus Russia is a modern David versus Goliath conflict that matters not only for the future of Ukraine, but for that of democracy itself.
Serhii PlokhyThe Perils of South Korean Democracy
When South Korea’s president declared martial law last December, he shocked the country and sparked a political crisis that laid bare deep-seated divisions. Can Korean democracy overcome the nationalist polarization that has always defined it?
Joan E. Cho and Aram Hur
Syria After Assad
Divining Syria’s Future
Everything we know about getting and keeping democracy suggests we should be, at best, cautious about the prospects for Syria’s democratic future. But, as this collection of essays suggests, there are reasons for hope.
Tarek Masoud“Forever Has Fallen”: The End of Syria’s Assad
Syrians rejoiced when Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell. After decades of dictatorship and civil war, Syrians must now rebuild their country while seeking justice for the victims of authoritarian rule.
Lisa WedeenWhy Syria’s Civil Society Is the Key
After the collapse of the Assad regime, Syria stands at a crossroads. Nothing is assured, but the country’s civil society is its best hope for charting a democratic future.
Rana B. Khoury and Wendy PearlmanRebuilding the State in Post-Assad Syria
Despite a brutal thirteen-year civil war, Syrians are not building from scratch. In fact, Syria has a long and rich history of state-building to guide them.
Daniel Neep
India’s New Minority Politics
The ruling BJP has long sought to sideline Indian Muslims. But even the opposition is opting to exclude them politically. Muslims’ chances at greater representation remain dim.
Feyaad AllieHow Autocrats Use Proxies to Control the Media
Propaganda is autocrats’ weapon of first resort, allowing them to rely on persuasion rather than violence to achieve their ends. But citizens have grown savvy, so autocrats are taking a new tack: spreading their messages via private news outlets indirectly controlled by regime proxies.
Bardia RahmaniThe Rise of Legislative Authoritarianism
Democratic backsliding is usually seen as something driven by presidents, but under certain circumstances elected legislatures can cause it, too. Legislative hegemony is a growing danger.
Paolo Sosa-Villagarcia, José Incio, and Moisés Arce
Reconsidering the Third Wave
The Authoritarian Origins of the Third Wave
The “third wave” of democracy started in 1974 — or so the story goes. But the crests and crashes of waves of democracy and authoritarianism have been neglected. A close look can help us understand the current moment, when democracy appears to be in retreat.
Dan SlaterNeoliberalism and the Third Wave
Democracy across the world is being undermined by the very forces that once made it possible: the liberal economic order and political competition. The global concentration of wealth has made democratic governance less effective and stripped the people of their power.
Rachel Beatty RiedlThe Third Wave’s Lessons for Democracy
When the “third wave” reached Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s, it brought major advances for democracy. By the first decade of the current century, however, advances had given way to stasis and even erosion.
Scott Mainwaring
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