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
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.
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?
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2
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.
Why Poland’s Liberals Lost | Jarosław Kuisz and Karolina Wigura
Political blunders, distrust of elites, and Donald Tusk’s inability to deliver on his promises helped make an unknown, far-right former bodyguard the country’s next president. Worse, it will be far harder now to safeguard Polish democracy.
Is South Korea’s New President Good for Democracy? | Gi-Wook Shin
South Koreans have elected Lee Jae-myung president. Will he be a pragmatic democratic reformer? Or will he continue the polarizing political warfare of recent South Korean leaders?
People Say Democracy Isn’t Working | Joel Day
So, why don’t they want to fix it?
News & Updates
June 2025
The escalating conflict between Iran and Israel now includes the United States, and fears are growing that it could become a regional war. But there’s another war that people aren’t talking about: the Islamic Republic’s brutal campaign against its own people.
June 2025
The May 2025 Philippine midterms are just the latest chapter in a yearslong feud between the Marcos and Duterte clans. These essays below plot the twists and turns of the political drama, and explain why it’s really a diversion from meaningful democratic reform.
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 Ayesha Jamal
The schism between the military establishment and former PM Imran Khan marks a new era of instability. Is Pakistan experiencing the rise of an autocratic deep state or the fall of authoritarian populism?
Plus the entire January 2024 issue, available free of charge for a limited time.
