Author: Archie Brown | Journal of Democracy

Archie Brown is emeritus professor of politics at Oxford University and emeritus fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford. His most recent book is Seven Years That Changed the World: Perestroika in Perspective (2007).

April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2

Reading Russia: Forms Without Substance

Archie Brown

Read the full essay here. Twenty years ago, there was a more thoroughgoing political pluralism in Russia than there is today. In some respects, the forms of democracy-including party consolidation-have been enhanced, but they have been so manipulated as to deprive them of substance. Either “electoral authoritarianism” of “multiparty authoritarianism” (Juan Linz’s terms) may reasonably…

October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4

Ten Years After the Soviet Breakup: From Democratization to Guided Democracy

Archie Brown

Except for the Baltic states, the countries of the former Soviet Union may be less democratic today than in the last years of the USSR.

Democracy after Communism

Is the challenge of building and consolidating democracy under postcommunist conditions unique, or can one apply lessons learned from other new democracies? The essays collected in this volume explore these questions, while tracing how the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have fared in the decade following the fall of communism.