April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
The Perils of Propaganda
A review of How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler, by Peter Pomerantsev.
Region: Western Europe
January 2024, Volume 35, Issue 1
Why Separatism Is No Match for Democracy
Separatists encounter a fundamental paradox: The very political flexibility that allows their aspirations to flourish in a democratic setting also provides the tools to snuff out their movements. It explains why they almost never succeed.
January 2021, Volume 32, Issue 1
Is Meritocracy Just?
A review of The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel.
October 2020, Volume 31, Issue 4
Policing the Police: U.S. and European Models
Hyperlocalized U.S. policing both upholds and corrodes democratic principles. Although some aspects of Europe’s model are nonstarters in the United States, Americans crave centralized enforcement of rules against abusive policing.
January 2017, Volume 28, Issue 1
Britain After Brexit
The Editors’ introduction to “Britain After Brexit.”
January 2017, Volume 28, Issue 1
Britain After Brexit: A Nation Divided
The referendum campaign and its aftermath have exposed fault lines between the “two Britains” that have been long in the making and that pose stark questions about national values and identity.
January 2017, Volume 28, Issue 1
Britain After Brexit: Resistance from Scotland
Just two years after voting to stay in the United Kingdom, Scotland voted to remain in the EU while Britain as a whole voted to leave. Is another independence referendum coming?
January 2017, Volume 28, Issue 1
Britain After Brexit: The Risk to Northern Ireland
The British decision to leave the EU raises difficult challenges for the still-delicate settlement upon which peace and stability in Northern Ireland depend.
January 2017, Volume 28, Issue 1
Britain After Brexit: A Transformed Political Landscape
The British party system is being fundamentally reshaped by the consequences of the British decision to leave the EU, which also threatens to reduce Britain’s influence on the rest of the world.
January 2017, Volume 28, Issue 1
Two Traditions of Liberalism
A review of The Anglo-American Tradition of Liberty: A View from Europe by João Carlos Espada.
October 2016, Volume 27, Issue 4
The Specter Haunting Europe: Distinguishing Liberal Democracy’s Challengers
Liberal democracy in Europe today is under siege from a variety of political forces, but it is critical to recognize the distinctions among them.
October 2016, Volume 27, Issue 4
The Specter Haunting Europe: Will the German Center Hold?
Europe’s democratic stability hinges on Germany, but a far-right challenger is on the rise. Can the country’s long-dominant centrist parties hold on?
October 2016, Volume 27, Issue 4
The Specter Haunting Europe: “Heritage Populism” and France’s National Front
Once a protest party, the right-wing National Front has sought to recast itself for electoral success. How will Marine Le Pen fare in the 2017 presidential race?
October 2016, Volume 27, Issue 4
The Specter Haunting Europe: The Lost Left
Post-1945 Western Europe benefited greatly from center-left parties offering real solutions to real problems. Where has that left gone?
July 2016, Volume 27, Issue 3
Shadows in the Swiss Paradise
Long a standout example of consensus-based politics, prosperous Switzerland has now become a mixed democracy with a good deal of polarization and uncertain prospects.
July 2015, Volume 26, Issue 3
The Medieval Roots of Democracy
Europe in the Middle Ages was hardly democratic, but it did have law-based institutions that could and did stay the hands of kings, laying a crucial basis for future state-building and democracy-building alike.
July 2015, Volume 26, Issue 3
Comment on Møller: The Importance of Equality
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.
October 2014, Volume 25, Issue 4
Euroskepticism Arrives: Marginal No More
The European Parliament elections of May 2014 were not an “earthquake,” but they did signal that Euroskeptic parties are drawing closer to the European political mainstream.
October 2014, Volume 25, Issue 4
Euroskepticism Arrives: The Missing Debate
Disagreements over how much power should reside in Brussels must be allowed to become a normal aspect of debates about European affairs.
April 2013, Volume 24, Issue 2
Why Greece Failed
Greece was an early success story of the “third wave,” but since the 2008 financial crisis, it has become a poster child for the pains of austerity and unrest. Its troubles at one level are fiscal and economic, but there is a political dimension that may be even more critical.
January 2010, Volume 21, Issue 1
Twenty Years of Postcommunism: Deepening Dissatisfaction
Today, twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, there is a growing ambiguity about the historical significance of 1989 and about the state of democracy in Europe (particularly Central Europe).
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
Scottish Democracy in a Time of Nationalism
The Scottish National Party proposes to free Scotland from its supposed tutelage to London, but betrays habits of political centralism and elitism that raise questions about the quality of democracy an independent Scotland would enjoy.
July 2008, Volume 19, Issue 3
Has the Northern Ireland Problem Been Solved?
The 1998 Good Friday Agreement provided a framework for peace and democracy in Northern Ireland. But it was a particular set of internal circumstances that allowed for the pact’s successful implementation.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
Trouble in the Advanced Democracies? A Quarter-Century of Declining Confidence
A quarter-century after the classic study The Crisis of Democracy was published, three distinguished political scientists find that, though the “crisis” may have disappeared, public confidence is on the decline in almost all the world’s advanced democracies.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
Trouble in the Advanced Democracies? The End of Consensus in Austria and Switzerland
With Austria’s and Switzerland’s leading political parties having “rigged the political marketplace” by forming Grand Coalitions, voters have turned to the radical right as the only available alternative.
October 1995, Volume 6, Issue 4
The History of the Word “Democracy” in France
Read the full essay here.
July 1995, Volume 6, Issue 3
The Western Allies 50 Years Later
The Editors’ introduction to “The Western Allies 50 Years Later.”
July 1995, Volume 6, Issue 3
The Western Allies 50 Years Later: France—Consensus Without Vision
Read the full essay here.
January 1995, Volume 6, Issue 1
Italy’s Civic Divide
A review of Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, by Robert D. Putnam, with Robert Leonardi and Raffaella Y. Nanetti.
July 1994, Volume 5, Issue 3
Updates on Japan & Italy: The Birth of the “Second Republic”
Read the full essay here.
January 1994, Volume 5, Issue 1
The Axis Powers 50 Years Later: Italy—The Twilight of the Parties
Read the full essay here.
January 1994, Volume 5, Issue 1
The Axis Powers 50 Years Later: Germany—A New “Wall in the Mind”?
Read the full essay here.
April 1993, Volume 4, Issue 2
Labor in Post-Franco Spain
A review of Working-Class Organization and the Return to Democracy in Spain, by Robert M. Fishman.
Why Macron’s Big Gamble Worked
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.
German Voters Trigger a Political Earthquake
The far-right AfD surged ahead in the European Union elections. It is now one of Germany’s dominant parties, and not just part of the fringe.
Why Germans Are Rallying Against the Far Right
Hundreds of thousands of Germans are taking to the streets in protest against the country’s far-right parties. Will it shift the tide or leave Germany further divided?
Why the German Far Right Is Beginning to Win
For years, they were a fringe vote. Now they are broadening their agenda, tapping into voter frustration, and getting Germans to favor them once again.
A Dangerous Façade
Marine Le Pen has remade her image to obscure her far-right populism. There is a real risk French voters won’t see through it.
Save la République!
Why Emmanuel Macron’s reelection hangs on him winning support from the very people he has ignored most.
Political Parties and Democracy
Political parties are one of the core institutions of democracy. But in democracies around the world, there is growing evidence of low or declining public confidence in parties. But are they in decline, or are they simply changing their forms and functions?
How People View Democracy
No serious student of democracy can afford to be without this book. It offers an original and comprehensive view of what citizens around the world think as democracy's global "third wave" prepares to enter its fourth and perhaps most challenging decade.