January 2016

Volume 27, Issue 1

On Democratic Backsliding

Old-fashioned military coups and blatant election-day fraud are becoming mercifully rarer these days, but other, subtler forms of democratic regression are a growing problem that demands more attention.

What's Wrong with East-Central Europe?

The Authoritarian Threat

The Authoritarian Threat: Weaknesses of Autocracy Promotion

While “autocracy promotion” presents a real danger, its influence so far has been limited. Because authoritarian regimes are concerned first with furthering their own interests, their interventions often have contradictory effects, sometimes even inadvertently fostering greater pluralism.

The Quest for Good Governance

Election Watch

Reports on elections in Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belize, Burkina Faso, Burma, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Egypt, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Seychelles, Tanzania, Turkey, and Venezuela.

Documents on Democracy

Excerpts from: remarks given by Iranian historian Ladan Boroumand at the opening of the Eighth Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy; a speech given by Venezuelan opposition leader Jesús Torrealba; remarks given by Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza as as he accepted on behalf of slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov a posthumous freedom award.