Category: Journal of Democracy

A ‘good populism’: will 2018 be as revolutionary as 1968?

     

A new generation of rebels is rising in Europe, this time from the right, with echoes of the huge protest movements of 50 years ago, argues Ivan Krastev, the chairman… Read more »

Reform or repression? Ethiopia ‘faces watershed moment’ after PM resigns

     

  Ethiopia’s ruling coalition has lost its authority and all parties must help map the country’s future, an opposition leader said on Friday, suggesting political tensions in Africa’s second most… Read more »

‘Hyperdemocratization’ not to blame for western democracies’ ills

     

While concerns about illiberalism, populism, and majoritarianism are certainly well-founded, blaming such phenomena on an “excess” of democracy is not, notes Barnard College professor Sheri Berman, a contributor to the… Read more »

Democracy’s failure to challenge kleptocrats

     

With a little courage and imagination, Western policymakers could dry up the illicit funds that keep autocratic leaders in power and drive real, “home-grown” democratic reforms in authoritarian countries around… Read more »

Corruption causing ‘political decay’ and damaging democracy, Pope Francis says

     

Pope Francis wrapped up a week-long visit to Latin America on Sunday in this Andean nation warning that a series of explosive corruption scandals that have tarnished current and former presidents is… Read more »

The People vs. Democracy? Illiberal democracy meets undemocratic liberalism

     

Yascha Mounk’s The People vs. Democracy argues that while liberals took liberalism’s permanence for granted, voters became “fed up with liberal democracy itself,” notes Sohrab Ahmari. Mounk has also collected mountains… Read more »

Kleptocratic regime intensifies repression

     

Ukraine is haltingly evolving away from a Russia-style, post-Soviet kleptocracy. But the allure of no-strings-attached Chinese cash could dampen the imperative for making reforms that Western aid packages, through their… Read more »

Fighting Terrorism: The Democracy Advantage

     

Against the background of a global surge in terror covering most of the last decade and a half, and contrary to popular hype, a consolidated, high-quality democracy is increasingly proving… Read more »

How corruption undermines democracy

     

Democratic polities are undermined “when the virus of illicit finance, hidden in the secret channels of the global financial network, infects a democratic system that depends on trust to survive,”… Read more »

Six steps to counter Putin’s ‘asymmetric assault on democracy’

     

A new report warns of deepening Russian interference throughout Europe and concludes that even as some Western democracies have responded with aggressive countermeasures, the U.S has no strategic plan to… Read more »