July 2024, Volume 35, Issue 3
Democracy After Truth
A review of The Death of Truth, by Steven Brill, and Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality, by Renée DiResta.
Section: Books in Review
April 2024, Volume 35, Issue 2
The Perils of Propaganda
A review of How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler, by Peter Pomerantsev.
January 2024, Volume 35, Issue 1
Portrait of an iPhone Statesman
A review of The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky, by Simon Shuster.
October 2023, Volume 34, Issue 4
The Meddling Kingdom
A review of Beijing Rules: How China Weaponized Its Economy to Confront the World, by Bethany Allen.
July 2023, Volume 34, Issue 3
Reimagining Democracy’s Defense
A review of Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, by Paul Scharre.
April 2023, Volume 34, Issue 2
Under the Influence
A review of Beijing’s Global Media Offensive: China’s Uneven Campaign to Influence Asia and the World by Joshua Kurlantzick.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
Shell Game
Trillions of dollars are stashed in the world’s secret financial system, where they are keeping autocratic regimes afloat and fueling democracy’s decline.
January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1
Friend of the Devil
McKinsey’s work is bankrolled by major corporations and governments around the world. How should the famous consulting firm choose the clients it represents and the projects it takes on?
October 2022, Volume 33, Issue 4
The Mandarin in the Machine
Beijing is bent on deploying mass surveillance to eliminate threats to its rule. It is terrifying—and the latest example of its determination to remold society.
July 2022, Volume 33, Issue 3
Cancel Toqueville?
Does the author of the nineteenth-century classic, Democracy in America, still matter?
April 2022, Volume 33, Issue 2
A Blueprint for Europe
Europe appeared ready to turn its back on the pessimistic vision of populists—and then Putin upended the continent. A new book may serve as a textbook for progress, or a signpost of democracy’s dashed hopes.
July 2021, Volume 32, Issue 3
How the Putin Regime Really Works
Is Russia formidable? The answer, two new books argue, lies in the highly centralized inner workings of Putin’s autocracy.
April 2021, Volume 32, Issue 2
Rebooting Democracy
A review of Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society, by Ronald J. Deibert.
January 2021, Volume 32, Issue 1
Is Meritocracy Just?
A review of The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel.
January 2021, Volume 32, Issue 1
Thieves’ Paradise
A review of Kleptopia: How Dirty Money Is Conquering the World, by Tom Burgis.
October 2020, Volume 31, Issue 4
Revealing China’s “Hidden Hand”
A review of Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party Is Reshaping the World, by Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg.
July 2020, Volume 31, Issue 3
The Prince
A review of MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed bin Salman, by Ben Hubbard.
April 2020, Volume 31, Issue 2
The Polarization Paradox
A review of Democracies Divided: The Global Challenge of Political Polarization, edited by Thomas Carothers and Andrew O’Donohue.
January 2020, Volume 31, Issue 1
Disinformation Disorientation
A review of This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality by Peter Pomerantsev.
October 2019, Volume 30, Issue 4
Insights from Europe’s History
A review of Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe: From the Ancien Régime to the Present Day by Sheri Berman.
July 2019, Volume 30, Issue 3
Are Strong Parties the Answer?
A review of Responsible Parties: Saving Democracy from Itself by Frances McCall Rosenbluth and Ian Shapiro.
April 2019, Volume 30, Issue 2
The Era of Manipulation
A review of The People vs. Tech: How the Internet Is Killing Democracy (and How We Save It) by Jamie Bartlett.
January 2019, Volume 30, Issue 1
How to Un-Rig an Election
A review of How to Rig an Election by Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klaas.
October 2018, Volume 29, Issue 4
Review Essay: Why Tunisia?
A review of Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly by Safwan M. Masri.
July 2018, Volume 29, Issue 3
Enrolling India
A review of How India Became Democratic: Citizenship and the Making of the Universal Franchise by Ornit Shani.
April 2018, Volume 29, Issue 2
Iran’s Exclusionary Republic
A review of Democracy in Iran: Why It Failed and How It Might Succeed by Misagh Parsa.
January 2018, Volume 29, Issue 1
The Case for Democratic Persistence
A review of Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom by Condoleezza Rice.
October 2017, Volume 28, Issue 4
Globalization Chinese-Style
A review of China’s Eurasian Century? Political and Strategic Implications of the Belt and Road Initiative by Nadège Rolland.
July 2017, Volume 28, Issue 3
Central Asia’s Globalized Despots
A review of Dictators Without Borders: Power and Money in Central Asia by Alexander Cooley and John Heathershaw.
April 2017, Volume 28, Issue 2
What’s in a Name?
A review of What Is Populism? by Jan-Werner Müller.
January 2017, Volume 28, Issue 1
Two Traditions of Liberalism
A review of The Anglo-American Tradition of Liberty: A View from Europe by João Carlos Espada.
October 2016, Volume 27, Issue 4
Particularism’s Empire
A review of The Quest for Good Governance: How Societies Develop Control of Corruption by Alina Mungiu-Pippidi.
July 2016, Volume 27, Issue 3
The Internet of Things
A review of Pax Technica: How the Internet of Things May Set Us Free or Lock Us Up by Philip N. Howard
April 2016, Volume 27, Issue 2
Making Democratic Waves
A review of Making Waves: Democratic Contention in Europe and Latin America Since the Revolutions of 1848 by Kurt Weyland.
January 2016, Volume 27, Issue 1
Transition Leaders Speak
A review of Democratic Transitions: Conversations with World Leaders, edited by Sergio Bitar and Abraham F. Lowenthal.
October 2015, Volume 26, Issue 4
The Evolution of Political Order
A review of Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy by Francis Fukuyama.
July 2015, Volume 26, Issue 3
Weighing the Asian Model
A review of The Nature of Asian Politics by Bruce Gilley.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
Stealing Russia Blind
A review of Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? by Karen Dawisha.
April 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2
The “Power-Sharing” Trap
A review of Power Politics in Zimbabwe by Michael Bratton.
January 2015, Volume 26, Issue 1
Michnik’s Homage to Havel
A review of An Uncanny Era: Conversations Between Václav Havel and Adam Michnik, translated and edited by Elzbieta Matynia.
October 2014, Volume 25, Issue 4
Flirting with Disaster
A review of The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from World War I to the Present by David Runciman.
July 2014, Volume 25, Issue 3
The Ups and Downs of Islamism
A review of Temptations of Power: Islamists and Illiberal Democracy in a New Middle East by Shadi Hamid.
April 2014, Volume 25, Issue 2
How Indonesia Won a Constitution
A review of Constitutional Change and Democracy in Indonesia by Donald L. Horowitz.
January 2014, Volume 25, Issue 1
Power Failure?
A review of The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn’t What It Used to Be by Moisés Naím.
October 2013, Volume 24, Issue 4
Separated at Birth?
A review of The Promise of Power: The Origins of Democracy in India and Autocracy in Pakistan by Maya Tudor.
July 2013, Volume 24, Issue 3
Kishore’s World
The widely hailed writings of Singapore’s Kishore Mahbubani, including his latest book, The Great Convergence: Asia, the West, and the Logic of One World, reveal a remarkably narrow and Manichean worldview.
April 2013, Volume 24, Issue 2
Review Essay: A Voice from the North Korean Gulag
Evidence of the evil perpetrated in North Korea’s prison camps continues to emerge, as most vividly highlighted by Blaine Harden’s Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West.
January 2013, Volume 24, Issue 1
Building Democratic Militaries
A review of The Soldier and the Changing State: Building Democratic Armies in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas by Zoltan Barany.
October 2012, Volume 23, Issue 4
School for Dictators
A review of The Dictator’s Learning Curve: Inside the Global Battle for Democracy by William J. Dobson
July 2012, Volume 23, Issue 3
The Spirit of Aung San Suu Kyi
A review of The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi by Peter Popham.
April 2012, Volume 23, Issue 2
Discovering the “State-Nation”
A review of Crafting State-Nations: India and Other Multinational Democracies by Alfred Stepan, Juan J. Linz, and Yogendra Yadav.
January 2012, Volume 23, Issue 1
Between Authoritarianism and Democracy
A review of Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War by Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way.
October 2011, Volume 22, Issue 4
Fukuyama’s Grand Vision
A review of The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution by Francis Fukuyama.
July 2011, Volume 22, Issue 3
Comparing Latin Democracies
A review of The Quality of Democracy in Latin America, edited by Daniel H. Levine and José E. Molina.
April 2011, Volume 22, Issue 2
Books in Review: Opening North Korea
A review of Witness to Transformation: Refugee Insights into North Korea by Marcus Noland and Stephan Haggard.
January 2011, Volume 22, Issue 1
A Russian Liberal’s Lament
A review of Lonely Power: Why Russia Has Failed to Become the West and the West Is Weary of Russia by Lilia Shevtsova.
October 2010, Volume 21, Issue 4
The Authoritarian Challenge
A review of Victorious and Vulnerable: Why Democracy Won in the 20th Century and How It Is Still Imperiled by Azar Gat.
July 2010, Volume 21, Issue 3
Acts of Resistance in China
A review of China's Long March to Freedom: Grassroots Modernization by Kate Zhou.
April 2010, Volume 21, Issue 2
What Makes Legislatures Strong?
A review of The Handbook of National Legislatures: A Global Survey by M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig, and Legislative Power in Emerging African Democracies edited by Joel D. Barkan.
January 2010, Volume 21, Issue 1
Democratic Triumph, Scholarly Pessimism
By any measure, democratization has achieved remarkable advances over the past twenty years. Why, then, have so many of the leading works written on the topic during this period been so full of gloom?
October 2009, Volume 20, Issue 4
Escaping the Development Impasse
A review of Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places by Paul Collier.
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
Arms and the Humanitarian
A review of Freedom’s Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention by Gary J. Bass.
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
Tocqueville’s Frontiers
A review of Conversations with Tocqueville: The Global Democratic Revolution in the Twenty-First Century edited by Aurelian Craiutu and Sheldon Gellar and Tocqueville et les frontières de la démocratie by Nestor Capdevila.
January 2009, Volume 20, Issue 1
Misreading Muslim History
A review of The West and Islam: Religion and Political Thought in World History by Antony Black
October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4
Mistaken Identity
A review of Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy by Natan Sharansky.
July 2008, Volume 19, Issue 3
Asia’s Progress
A review of Pacific Asia in Quest of Democracy by Roland Rich.
April 2008, Volume 19, Issue 2
India’s Improbable Success
A review of India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guha and The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence and India's Future by Martha C. Nussbaum.
January 2008, Volume 19, Issue 1
Inside Iraq’s Confessional Politics
A review of The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace by Ali A. Allawi.
October 2007, Volume 18, Issue 4
China’s Would-Be Citizens
A review of Inside Iraq's Confessional Politics by Junning Liu.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
Democracy Contra Politics
A review of A World Beyond Politics? A Defense of the Nation-State by Pierre Manent.
April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
Are New Democracies War-Prone?
A review of Electing to Fight: Why Emerging Democracies Go to War by Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder
April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
Assisting Political Parties
A review of Confronting the Weakest Link: Aiding Political Parties in New Democracies by Thomas Carothers.
January 2007, Volume 18, Issue 1
Books in Review: Is China Stuck?
A review of China's Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy by Minxin Pei.
October 2006, Volume 17, Issue 4
Equality or Liberty?
A review of Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy by Daren Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
July 2006, Volume 17, Issue 3
The Dark Side of Globalization
A review of Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy, by Moisés Naím.
April 2006, Volume 17, Issue 2
The History of a Word
A review of Setting the People Free: The Story of Democracy, by John Dunn
January 2006, Volume 17, Issue 1
Islam and Liberty
A review of The Universal Hunger for Liberty: Why the Clash of Civilizations Is Not Inevitable. By Michael Novak.
January 2006, Volume 17, Issue 1
Soldiers and Islamists in Pakistan
Read the full essay here. A review of Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military, by Hussain Haqqani.
October 2005, Volume 16, Issue 4
Minding the Polls
A review of Beyond Free and Fair: Monitoring Elections and Building Democracy by Eric C. Bjornlund.
July 2005, Volume 16, Issue 3
The Quintessential Dissident
A review of The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror by Natan Sharansky
April 2005, Volume 16, Issue 2
Lipset’s Legacy
A review of The Democratic Century by Seymour Martin Lipset and Jason M. Lakin.
April 2005, Volume 16, Issue 2
Freedom’s Edge
A review of The Democratic Advantage: How Democracies Promote Prosperity and Peace by Morton H. Halperin, Joseph T. Siegle, and Michael M. Weinstein.
January 2005, Volume 16, Issue 1
What’s in Store for China
A review of China's Democratic Future: How It Will Happen and Where It Will Lead by Bruce Gilley.
October 2004, Volume 15, Issue 4
Witnessing Africa’s Woes and Hopes
A review of A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa by Howard W. French.
July 2004, Volume 15, Issue 3
What Makes Democracies Collapse?
A review of Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times: The Citizenry and the Breakdown of Democracy by Nancy Bermeo.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
Ousting the “Final 45”
A review of Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025 by Mark Palmer.
January 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1
Putin’s Deep Freeze
A review of Popular Choice and Managed Democracy: The Russian Elections of 1999 and 2000 by Timothy J. Colton and Michael McFaul; Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State by David Satter; and Putin's Russia by Lilia Shevtsova.
October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
The Illusion of Liberal Autocracy
A review of The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad by Fareed Zakaria.
October 2003, Volume 14, Issue 4
Toward a Science of Ethnic Conflict?
A review of The Deadly Ethnic Riot by Donald L. Horowitz and Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India by Ashutosh Varshney.
July 2003, Volume 14, Issue 3
Measuring Democratic Commitment
A review of Defending Democracy: A Global Survey of Foriegn Policy Trends 1992–2002, edited by Robert G. Herman and Theodore J. Piccone.
July 2003, Volume 14, Issue 3
After the Shooting Stops
A review of "Ending Civil Wars: The Implementation of Peace Agreements" Edited by Stephen John Stedman, Donald Rothchild, and Elizabeth M. Cousens.
April 2003, Volume 14, Issue 2
Books in Review: The Post-Soviet Political Mind
A review of “Conversations with Gorbachev” by Mikhail Gorbachev and Zdenek Mlynár.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
Character and Leadership
A review of The Politics of Moral Capital by John Kane.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
Latin Democracy, Comprehensively
A review of Democracies in Development: Politics and Reform in Latin America by J. Mark Payne et al.
October 2002, Volume 13, Issue 4
Flogging a Dead God?
A review of Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism by Joshua Muravchik.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
The Post-Soviet Puzzle
A review of Russia’s Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin, by Michael McFaul.
July 2002, Volume 13, Issue 3
Thinking Big
A review of Arguing Comparative Politics by Alfred Stepan.
April 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2
Cracks in the Middle Kingdom
A review of Bad Elements: Chinese Rebels from Los Angeles to Beijing. By Ian Buruma.
January 2002, Volume 13, Issue 1
Reconstructing Afghanistan
A review of Afghanistan’s Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics, and the Rise of the Taliban by Larry P. Goodson; and Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, by Ahmed Rashid.
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
Defying the Odds
A review of Building the Rule of Law: Francis Nyalali and the Road to Judicial Independence in Africa By Jennifer A. Widner.