
Gorbachev’s Enduring Legacy
The last Soviet leader brought down his regime and ended the Cold War. The free world owes him a debt of gratitude.
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The last Soviet leader brought down his regime and ended the Cold War. The free world owes him a debt of gratitude.
Across Latin America, former leaders are keeping a chokehold on their countries’ politics. It’s time their successors break free.
The French president risked it all to hand the far right a stinging loss. But the celebration can’t last long. If the country is to avoid greater political chaos, voters must be encouraged to think about broader coalitions that go beyond a narrow left-right divide.
The Venezuelan dictator defied sanctions, international isolation, and massive protests. He appears to have a firmer footing than he’s had in years. Now what?
Cuba’s dictatorship has kept student movements under its thumb for decades. But the regime’s repressive tactics have inadvertently breathed new life into a new generation of student activists. These young people are willing to fight for the island’s freedom.
President Macky Sall has called off his country’s presidential election just weeks ahead of the vote. His unconstitutional decree will not only keep him in power, but threatens to throw Senegal into violent chaos.
If the West forces Kyiv to accept Putin’s diplomatic terms, he will have succeeded without firing a shot.
A Hong Kong court just handed out heavy sentences to 45 democracy activists. The pro-Beijing government is taking a hard line against anyone who would challenge it.
It is almost a year since the death of Alexei Navalny. The Russian opposition leader sought to channel Russian nationalism as a challenge to Putin’s autocracy. He gave everything in the fight.
These excerpts pertain to Rachid al-Ghannouchi and the challenge of blending Islam and democracy.
October 3, 2011
It is tempting to believe the horrors of the past will not haunt our future. Vladimir Putin is proving that we hold such beliefs at our peril.
Forget his excuses. Russia’s autocrat doesn’t worry about NATO. What terrifies him is the prospect of a flourishing Ukrainian democracy.
Venezuela’s opposition defeated Nicolás Maduro in the country’s July presidential election, but the Venezuelan strongman refuses to relinquish power. The Journal of Democracy essays below, free for a limited time, chronicle Venezuela’s struggle against Maduro’s authoritarianism — and what makes this election different.
From Putin’s invasion to Kim’s nuclear saber rattling, the West has punished the world’s worst regimes. But have sanctions missed their targets?
The country’s outgoing president is determined to bulldoze Mexico’s judicial system. His attack on the rule of law is even worse than most people realize.
Mexico’s ruling party is using its majority to overhaul democratic institutions. Venezuela’s autocrat, Nicolás Maduro, has been sworn in for a third term after stealing an election he clearly lost. And the legacy of covid-19 is still shaping the region’s politics. The following JoD essays unpack the latest in Latin American democracy.
The small Latin American country was a brief democratic bright spot. But it appears to have fallen victim to a clash between populists and anti-populists, without a democrat in sight.
Want to distract the public? Little works better than family feuds ripped from soap opera plotlines. That’s how the Marcos and Duterte clans keep people glued to the drama while crowding out democratic reform.
Ten years after the revolution, the lessons for protecting a budding democracy and guarding against violent extremism are clear.
In 2022, we began publishing shorter, exclusively online pieces. No topic mattered more to you than Russia’s disastrous war in Ukraine. We also published essays from the sharpest minds on protests in China and Iran, instability in Pakistan, and more.