April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
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.
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
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?
January 2025, Volume 36, Issue 1
Many pundits cry for a negotiated settlement to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. But they misunderstand Vladimir Putin’s motives. The only just end to the war will be in the trenches, not at the bargaining table.
July 2024, Volume 35, Issue 3
The “crisis” of democracy is a crisis of representation. New parties, some of which are populist in troublingly illiberal ways, are arising from this moment. The danger that they pose is not that they are antidemocratic, but that they are antiliberal.
Why Dictators Fear Universal Jurisdiction | Ezequiel Podjarny
It may be the best weapon we have for holding autocrats accountable for their crimes, and the world’s democracies are beginning to rally behind it.
Why Election Observers Are Human-Rights Defenders | Gerardo de Icaza
Election observers are the first line of defense for democratic rights and freedoms, and they work in some of the most challenging places. They deserve the same protections as human-rights defenders.
Why Georgians Won’t Give Up | Ghia Nodia
Even as the ruling party has grown more repressive, the people have swarmed the streets in protest — every day. The protesters know the government’s true goal is to appease Russia, and Georgians will never accept it.
News & Updates
May 2025
Determined to project their influence abroad, authoritarian regimes are subverting international rules and norms while disguising their misdeeds. The easiest way to do this? Convince the world they are benign, upstanding members of the international community.
April 2025
How do autocrats control the media? Will Syria be free now that Assad has fallen? What’s to blame for democratic backsliding? Why must Ukraine win? The April issue of the Journal of Democracy tackles some of today’s most pressing questions.
Most Read
In recent years competitive authoritarianism has emerged in some countries with relatively strong democratic traditions and institutions.
Authoritarians are developing new tools to project their malign influence across the globe. The world of sports can teach us a lot about the games they play.
Forget his excuses. Russia’s autocrat doesn’t worry about NATO. What terrifies him is the prospect of a flourishing Ukrainian democracy.
If democracies did a better job “delivering” for their citizens, so the thinking goes, people would not be so ready to embrace antidemocratic alternatives. Not so. This conventional wisdom about democratic backsliding is seldom true and often not accurate at…
Generative AI can flood the media, internet, and even personal correspondence, sowing confusion for voters and government officials alike. If we fail to act, mounting mistrust will polarize our societies and tear at our institutions.
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By Danielle Allen and E. Glen Weyl
Advanced AI poses twin perils: the collapse of democratic control over key state functions and the concentration of political and economic power in the hands of the few.
Plus the entire January 2024 issue, available free of charge for a limited time.
