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?
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.
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.
Bolivia’s Silent Destruction | Jhanisse Vaca Daza
Bolivia’s Amazon forests are becoming scorched earth, with millions of acres lost each year to raging fires. Worse, this disaster is being caused by a government more interested in corrupt profits than protecting its people and wildlife.
Beijing Wants to Erase Tibet’s Name. Don’t Let Them. | Tenzin Dorjee and James Leibold
The Chinese Communist Party is attempting to rename the Tibetan people’s homeland, part of a wider effort to eradicate Tibet’s cultural identity. For Tibet, it’s more than just a name.
How Dictators Use Sports to Win Friends and Influence People | Sarath K. Ganji
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.
News & Updates
May 2025
Putin’s war on Ukraine, AI’s threat to democracy, and democracy’s crisis of confidence have been at the forefront of readers’ minds this month. Read May’s top 10 essays for free now!
May 2025
Romania is the latest example of rising far-right populism across Europe. The essays below examine the forces driving these illiberal political movements.
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.
