How South Korea’s Next Leader Should Handle Kim Jong-un

  • Sheena Chestnut Greitens
South Korea is about to elect a new president. North Korea has changed in recent years. Seoul’s approach to the Kim regime must change to reflect new risks — and Korea’s democratic strength.

How the Far Right Almost Destroyed Romanian Democracy

  • Veronica Anghel
Romania’s democracy just survived a near-death experience, but it may be more vulnerable going forward. How far can leaders go in defending democracy without compromising their claim to represent the people?
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1

The New Competitive Authoritarianism

  • Steven Levitsky
  • Lucan A. Way
In recent years competitive authoritarianism has emerged in some countries with relatively strong democratic traditions and institutions.
April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2

Delivering for Democracy: Why Results Matter

  • Francis Fukuyama
  • Chris Dann
  • Beatriz Magaloni
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.

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July 2024, Volume 35, Issue 3

Who Decides What Is Democratic?

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.

Latest Online Exclusives

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’s Most-Read Essays

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!



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The New Competitive Authoritarianism

In recent years competitive authoritarianism has emerged in some countries with relatively strong democratic traditions and institutions.

How Dictators Use Sports to Win Friends and Influence People

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.

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What Putin Fears Most

Forget his excuses. Russia’s autocrat doesn’t worry about NATO. What terrifies him is the prospect of a flourishing Ukrainian democracy.

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Misunderstanding Democratic Backsliding

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…

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How AI Threatens Democracy

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.