October 2021, Volume 32, Issue 4
How Populism Corrodes Latin American Parties
Unlike in the past, populism in Latin America today is driven mainly by the power of charismatic leaders—and it is eating away at the region’s already weak party system.
Subject: Personalism
July 2021, Volume 32, Issue 3
How Personalist Politics is Changing Democracies
Once mostly found in authoritarian regimes, personalism is now putting established democracies in peril—a trend that digital technology will likely make worse.
October 2019, Volume 30, Issue 4
Sudan’s Uprising: The Fall of a Dictator
Amid mass protests, the personalist autocracy of longtime Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir fell to an April 2019 coup. With the country now being governed by a council composed of both opposition leaders and powerful security- service coupmakers, prospects for democratization remain uncertain.
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
Reading Russia: The Return of Personalized Power
In contrast to authoritarian power structures, which rest on a form of bureaucratic corporatism that makes the leader its hostage, the regime in Moscow rests on personalized power, something that signals a return to the traditional Russian political matrix. The regime has fused power and property in a manner that makes the oligarchs utterly dependent…
January 2008, Volume 19, Issue 1
Senegal: The Return of Personalism
Senegal's 2000 presidential election marked the end of forty years of one-party rule. But the reign of President Wade has been a severe disappointment, dashing hopes for democratic consolidation. *This is a corrected text of the print and original online version of this essay, portions of which drew heavily on Tarik Dahou and Vincent Foucher's…
October 1997, Volume 8, Issue 4
Haiti’s Flagging Transition
October 1992, Volume 3, Issue 4
Indonesia’s Threefold Crisis
Winter 1990, Volume 1, Issue 1
Achebe’s Africa
A review of Anthills of the Savannah, by Chinua Achebe.