China’s secret ‘magic weapon’ for global soft power
Xi Jinping is quietly ramping up the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist party in a push for global “soft power”, The FT’s James Kynge writes in a… Read more »
Category: Journal of Democracy
Does Xi – China’s most powerful leader since Mao – plan to ‘do a Putin’?
China’s ruling party moved on Tuesday to confirm Xi Jinping’s status as the country’s most powerful leader in decades by adding his name and ideology to its constitution. Xi’s concept… Read more »
How to put the demos back into European democracy
Liberal democracies confront a range of domestic and international challenges. In Europe, the most serious threats come from a blend of ideological and institutional inertia in the face of a… Read more »
As China attacks Western democracy, are non-democratic options emerging?
China’s official Xinhua news agency attacked Western democracy as divisive and confrontational on Tuesday, praising on the eve of a key Communist Party Congress the harmony and cooperative nature of… Read more »
Populism – Europe’s new normal?
Rather than a sudden lurch to the right, the victory of conservative and far-right parties in Austria’s elections Sunday was another reflection of the new normal in Europe, where anti-immigration… Read more »
Globally, broad support for democracy, but many endorse nondemocratic alternatives
Emboldened autocrats and rising populists have shaken assumptions about the future trajectory of liberal democracy, both in nations where it has yet to flourish and countries where it seemed… Read more »
Stepan, Turkey and Islam’s democratic compatibility
The emergence of an “upstart populist party” like the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been facilitated in no small part by a widespread fear that Islam and democracy are incompatible,… Read more »
Is Western democracy ‘threatening suicide’?
The decline of Europe’s center-left has allowed populists to make inroads, which is a problem for democracy, argues Sheri Berman, a professor of political science at Barnard College and… Read more »
Corruption, poor economy, illiberalism threaten Tunisia’s exceptionalism
Poor economic conditions and corruption are at the source of intense public dissatisfaction in Tunisia, according to a new poll by the International Republican Institute’s (IRI) Center for Insights in Survey Research:… Read more »
Alfred C. Stepan, R.I.P.
Democracy advocates and scholars are mourning the passing of Alfred C. Stepan. Stepan, a prominent political scientist who served as dean of the School of International and Public Affairs from… Read more »