Spring 1990

The Suicide of Soviet Communism

• Charles H. Fairbanks, Jr

The Last Empire

• Paul B. Henze

The Legacy of Andrei Sakharov

• Natan Sharansky

On the Tasks of a Democratic Opposition

• Alfred Stepan

Is China Ready for Democracy?

• Andrew J. Nathan

Taiwan in Transition

• Tun-jen Cheng
• Stephan Haggard

The Agony of the Sudan

• Bona Malwal

Brazil’s New Beginning

• Bolívar Lamounier

“People, Your Government Has Returned to You!”

• Václav Havel

Nigeria’s Embattled Fourth Estate

• Ray Ekpu

Islamic Liberalism

• Shaul Bakhash

A review of Islamic Liberalism: A Critique of Development Ideologies, by Leonard Binder.

Stabilizing Latin Democracy

• Susan Kaufman Purcell

A review of Democracy in the Americas: Stopping the Pendulum, edited by Robert A. Pastor.

Election Watch

Reports on elections in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Grenada,  Nicaragua, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and Zimbabwe.

Documents on Democracy

Excerpts from: the victory speech of Nicaraguan presidential candidate Violeta Barrios de Chamorro; South African president F.W. de Klerk’s speech opening Parliament; the platform of Lithuania’s pro-independence Sajudis movement.

News and Notes

Burmese Ban Leading Opposition Candidate; Dissidents Press for Change in Cuba; CSIS Holds Conference on Democratic Transitions; Tanzania’s Nyerere Hints at Multiparty Opening.