722 Results
July 2015, Volume 26, Issue 3
Nonpartisan election monitoring has helped to foster democratization over the last thirty years, but now dictators are trying to sabotage it, often by spreading lies and confusion.
July 2015, Volume 26, Issue 3
It is fine to acknowledge the importance of law-based rule to the eventual rise of modern democracy, but we must not overlook the even greater contribution of the idea of equality.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
China has gone back on its well-documented vow (and solemn treaty obligation) to allow Hong Kong genuine universal suffrage. Abrogated commitments and fake democracy are not the path to a thriving Hong Kong that feels at home within the People’s Republic of China.
January 2015, Volume 26, Issue 1
As China’s power grows, will it seek to remake the world in its authoritarian image? For now, China shows no such missionary impulse, but the ways in which it pursues its interests can still threaten the fate of democracy.
January 2014, Volume 25, Issue 1
January 2014 marks the tenth anniversary of Afghanistan’s constitution. In what areas has it succeeded or failed? Judging by its achievements with respect to four midrange goals, the document has a record that is decidedly mixed.
January 2013, Volume 24, Issue 1
Despite the considerable resilience demonstrated by the Chinese authoritarian regime, its power experiences continuous atrophy. With the weakening of the totalitarian control imposed on Chinese society, the current stability-maintenance system has been decreasing in its effectiveness.
January 2012, Volume 23, Issue 1
Read the full essay here. In the West, Turkey is considered a model for a secular democracy in the Muslim world, yet the country finds itself mired in a crisis of civil rights and liberties under a third term of the pro-Islamic AKP government. Ironically, while the government maintains a discourse on political reform—including constitutional…
October 1994, Volume 5, Issue 4
Excerpts from: the statement of Wangarí Maathai, the founder and head of the Kenyan Greenbelt Movement; recommendations from the First International Conference on the Peoples of the Arab World and the Middle East and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Minorities.
July 1995, Volume 6, Issue 3
Excerpts from: a petition by forty-five prominent Chinese intellectuals calling for increased political tolerance; the inaugural speech of Julio María Sanguinetti, the president of Uruguay; remarks by You Ching, country magistrate of Taipei, Taiwan.
January 2014, Volume 25, Issue 1
Excerpts from: a speech delivered in North Korea by Mongolian president Tsakhiagiyn Elbegdorj; Aung San Suu Kyi’s speech honoring Václav Havel; the joint statement of governments participating in a meeting on the growth of restrictions on civil society globally; the charter of the newly formed Asia Democracy Network.
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
Excerpts from: a statement by Cuban dissidents entitled “All United”; a letter by former dissidents of the Soviet bloc to the so-called “Group of Four” critics of the Castro regime in Cuba; an address delivered by the Commonwealth’s outgoing secretary-general Chief Emeka Anayaoku; the “Seoul Statement” on human rights in North Korea; Abdurrahman Wahid’s speech…
July 2023, Volume 34, Issue 3
To say that Indian democracy is backsliding misunderstands the country’s history and the challenges it faces: A certain authoritarianism is embedded in India’s constitution and political structures.
October 2012, Volume 23, Issue 4
Excerpts from: Aung San Suu Kyi’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech; former Yukos oil company head Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s statement criticizing the Moscow trial of three members of the band Pussy Riot; Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi’s speech; the statement of 17 Egyptian NGOs urging a greater focus on the rule of law and human rights.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
Excerpts from: “Tunisia 2004: Manifesto of Progressive Tunisian Democrats”; the Declaration of Quebec City from the third Summit of the Americas meeting; Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castañeda’s address at the 57th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
October 2021, Volume 32, Issue 4
Excerpts from: Sergei Adamovich’s remarks on the death of Andrei Sakharov; Marjan Farsad’s “Moonlight”; joint letter for a global moratorium on surveillance-technology sales; Zambian president Haikande Hichilema’s inaugural address.
January 2018, Volume 29, Issue 1
Despite worries that terror groups can turn open societies’ very openness against them, the numbers reveal that liberal democracies enjoy significant advantages in resisting the threat of terrorism.
July 2020, Volume 31, Issue 3
President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party are taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to seize new ground and promote China’s global influence. But their assertive, strong-arm tactics are born from fear and restless insecurity.
April 1993, Volume 4, Issue 2
Excerpts from: speeches from El Salvador’s National Reconciliation Day ceremonies; the Mozambique’s General Peace Accord; South Korean president Kim Young Sam’s inaugural address; Chakufwa Chihana’s speech accepting the 1992 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.
April 2010, Volume 21, Issue 2
Excerpts from: a statement by Liu Xiaobo, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison on charches of “inciting subversion of state power”; the inaugural address of Honduran president Porfirio Lobo; a statement issued by the Sri Lankan Lawyers for Democracy; the inaugural address of Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
April 2014, Volume 25, Issue 2
Excerpts from: the statement of Xu Zhiyong, a founding member of New Citizens Movement, at his trial; a joint statement by the former presidents of Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru on the situation in Venezuela; the preamble of Tunisia’s first constitution since Ben Ali’s fall; statement by Ukrainian NGO Civic Sector.
