July 2023, Volume 34, Issue 3
Why Russia’s Democracy Never Began
People obsess over where Russia’s democracy went wrong. The truth is it did not fail: Russia’s democratic transition never got off the starting blocks.
1298 Results
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July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
Election Watch
Reports on elections in Algeria, Bahamas, Burkina Faso, Chad, Colombia, the Comoros, Congo-Brazzaville, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Hungary, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Ukraine, Vanuatu, and Zimbabwe.
Our Favorite Books of 2023
New works on China, Russia, political philosophy, English history, and much more graced our shelves this year. Here are the JoD staff’s favorite books of the year.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
Election Watch
Reports on elections in Georgia, Guatemala, Guinea, Iran, Russia, and Serbia.
January 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1
Election Watch
Reports on elections in Azerbaijan, Croatia, Georgia, Grenada, Guatemala, Mauritania, Rwanda, and Serbia.
July 2022, Volume 33, Issue 3
How Viktor Orbán Wins
The case of Hungary shows how autocrats can rig elections legally, using legislative majorities to change the law and neutralize the opposition at every turn, no matter what strategy they adopt.
The World Has Become Flatter for Authoritarian Regimes
They are benefiting from a world that has grown more hostile for democracy and human rights. But it doesn’t need to be the case. Democracies need to double down on their own competitive advantage.
July 2022, Volume 33, Issue 3
Digital Propaganda: The Power of Influencers
Swarms of “nano-influencers,” are rapidly reshaping social-media propaganda campaigns, upending political discourse in democracies around the world.
January 1992, Volume 3, Issue 1
Election Watch
Reports on elections in Argentina, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Colombia, India, Kazakhstan, Mauritius, Poland, Tadzhikistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, Vanuatu, Zambia.
Why Pakistan Always Seems on the Brink of Collapse
The military has spent decades trying to impose order on Pakistani politics. It has led to chaos. | By Ahsan I. Butt
October 2014, Volume 25, Issue 4
External Influence and Democratization: The Revenge of Geopolitics
Advancing the democratic cause is threatening to autocrats, and they will fight back.
April 2006, Volume 17, Issue 2
What Really Happened in Kyrgyzstan?
The March 2005 “Tulip Revolution” that toppled President Askar Akeyev is often grouped with the “color revolutions” in Georgia and Ukraine, but in many ways the Kyrgyz case was unique.
January 2017, Volume 28, Issue 1
The Three Regions of the Old Soviet Bloc
Today, there are three parts of the old Soviet bloc—one is democratic, another is wholly authoritarian, and a third “intermediate” group is caught between two worlds. This last should be the main focus of Western assistance.
October 2014, Volume 25, Issue 4
External Influence and Democratization: Gatekeepers and Linkages
Levitsky and Way’s account of linkage and leverage leaves out the key role of “gatekeeper” elites.
October 2014, Volume 25, Issue 4
External Influence and Democratization: Structure vs. Choice
Linkage and leverage largely reflect long-term structural factors, and only in certain situations can they be affected by policy choices.
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
Moldova’s “Twitter Revolution”
In April 2008, disputed election results in the tiny state of Moldova sparked violent protests and a harsh response from state authorities.
January 2024, Volume 35, Issue 1
Documents on Democracy
Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi’s letter from prison; Russian artist Sasha Skochilenko’s final court statement; the Bletchley Declaration on AI safety and ethics; “An Open Letter to the Presidents of Africa” by Congolese hip hop artist Martial Pa’nucci; a letter from Guatemala’s indigenous ancestral and community authorities; a Chinese blogger remembers Peng Lifa.
July 2021, Volume 32, Issue 3
How the Putin Regime Really Works
Is Russia formidable? The answer, two new books argue, lies in the highly centralized inner workings of Putin’s autocracy.