July 2022, Volume 33, Issue 3
How Resilient Is the CCP?
Xi Jinping undercut China’s political norms to cement his own power and brand of rule. But in so doing the “Chairman of Everything” has introduced new vulnerabilities for the regime.
Subject: Communism
April 2021, Volume 32, Issue 2
China: Totalitarianism’s Long Shadow
China’s fast economic rise has not dented its dictatorship, but Xi Jinping’s neo-Stalinist strategy has unleashed new challenges and tensions for the Communist Party’s long-term prospects for survival.
July 2016, Volume 27, Issue 3
Xi Jinping’s Maoist Revival
Far from being a reformer, as some had hoped, President Xi Jinping has launched the most sweeping ideological campaign seen in China since Mao. Xi is mixing nationalism, Leninism, and Maoism in ways that he hopes will cement continued one-party Communist rule.
October 2015, Volume 26, Issue 4
Authoritarianism Goes Global (II): The Leninist Roots of Civil Society Repression
East European communists inherited the Bolshevik obsession with repressing any genuinely independent civil society groups.
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.
January 2014, Volume 25, Issue 1
The Legacies of 1989: The Moving Ruins
Communism is gone, but while it was alive and in power it bred profound moral pathologies that still haunt the region.
April 2012, Volume 23, Issue 2
Southeast Asia: Elites vs. Reform in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam
Vietnam and its smaller neighbors Laos and Cambodia remain bastions of illiberalism and one-party rule despite rapid economic growth and falling poverty. What will it take to reform their elitist political cultures and curtail the use of public office for private ends?
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.
January 2010, Volume 21, Issue 1
Twenty Years of Postcommunism: Deepening Dissatisfaction
Today, twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, there is a growing ambiguity about the historical significance of 1989 and about the state of democracy in Europe (particularly Central Europe).
January 2010, Volume 21, Issue 1
Twenty Years of Postcommunism: The Other Transition
Read the full essay here. The recent history of Eastern Europe can best be understood as a transition to a new social contract between the postcommunist state that emerged from its communist predecessor and the postcommunist citizen who evolved from the communist subject. It is the relationship between state and society under communism that best…
January 2010, Volume 21, Issue 1
Twenty Years of Postcommunism: Citizenship Restored
The 1989 revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe were the triumph of civic dignity over Leninism. The first decade of postcommunism saw the project of an open society strongly challenged by ethnocratic temptations. The most important new idea brought about by the revolutions of 1989 was the rethinking and the restoration of citizenship.
January 2010, Volume 21, Issue 1
Twenty Years of Postcommunism: What’s the Matter with Russia?
The author analyses the confluence of several elements that helped to set Russia’s course: the influence of history; the challenges of the transformation process itself; the importance of leadership; and the role of the West.
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
China Since Tiananmen: The Massacre’s Long Shadow
In the two decades since the Tiananmen massacre, China has enjoyed rapid economic growth and a measure of political stability. Recently, however, various forms of popular protest have been increasing. Do they represent a potentially serious threat to CCP rule?
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
China Since Tiananmen: A New Rights Consciousness?
Read the full essay here. Despite the suppression of the Tiananmen Uprising of 1989, popular protest in China has by all accounts escalated steadily over the ensuing two decades. These protests have spread to virtually every sector of Chinese society, prompting more than a few observers to proclaim the emergence of a “rising rights consciousness”…
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
China Since Tiananmen: The Labor Movement
Read the full essay here. The twenty years since 1989 have brought two major developments in worker activism. First, whereas workers were part of the mass uprising in the Tiananmen Movement, there is today hardly any sign of mobilization that transcends class or regional lines. Second, a long-term decline in worker power at the point…
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
China Since Tiananmen: Rural Protest
Read the full essay here. Although China’s farmers did not play a large role in the 1989 protests, they have been quite contentious since. Rural unrest has been triggered in part by reforms and in part by savvy “peasant leaders” who quickly seize opportunities that appear. Recently, many protest leaders have concluded that tame forms…
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
China Since Tiananmen: Middle-Class Mobilization
Read the full essay here. Some of the many China stories to attract attention recently have involved NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) protests by largely middle class crowds gathering to demand a greater say in urban development plans. This article argues that such protests a) are a significant addition to the already complex landscape of…
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
China Since Tiananmen: Online Activism
Read the full essay here. Online activism is an integral part of the broader landscape of citizen activism in contemporary China. It assumes a variety of forms, from cultural and social activism to cyber-nationalism and online petitions and protests. Technological development and social transformation provide the basic structural conditions. A fledgling civil society of online…
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
China Since Tiananmen: Authoritarian Impermanence
Like all contemporary nondemocratic systems, the Chinese system suffers from weak legitimacy at the level of regime type. The most likely form of transition for China remains the model of Tiananmen, when three elements came together: a robust plurality of disaffected citizens, a catalytic event, and a split in the leadership. Had China chosen the…
July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3
Moldova’s “Twitter Revolution”
In April 2008, disputed election results in the tiny state of Moldova sparked violent protests and a harsh response from state authorities.
April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2
Reading Russia: The Siloviki in Charge
Since Vladimir Putin’s rise to power at the end of the 1990s, siloviki—the people who work for, or used to work for, Russia’s “ministries of force” have spread to posts throughout all the branches of power in Russia.
January 2009, Volume 20, Issue 1
Can Cuba Change? Tensions in the Regime
Although the transfer of power from Fidel to Raúl has been relatively uneventful, potential divisions within the ruling elite, especially between the military and the Party, are likely to emerge before too long.
January 2009, Volume 20, Issue 1
Debating the Color Revolutions: Necessary Distinctions
Western pressure can be decisive, but it is not always easy to forecast when and how it will be applied.
January 2009, Volume 20, Issue 1
Debating the Color Revolutions: What Are We Trying to Explain?
Change may be caused more by the frailty of the regime than the strength of the opposition, but in such cases the outcome is often less democratic.
January 2009, Volume 20, Issue 1
Hong Kong’s Democrats Hold Their Own
A decade after the handover of their city to China, Hong Kong’s “pandemocrats” remain able to stand their ground at the ballot box.
July 2008, Volume 19, Issue 3
The Real Causes of the Color Revolutions
The “color revolutions” in the postcommunist countries cannot be attributed to diffusion alone. Structural factors offer a better explanation of why such revolutions have succeeded in some countries and not in others.
July 2008, Volume 19, Issue 3
A New Look at Ethnicity and Democratization
Conventional scholarly wisdom holds that ethnic diversity within a given society generally dims democracy’s prospects. Careful reflection on the experience of many post-Soviet states, however, suggests that this need not be so.
April 2008, Volume 19, Issue 2
Russia’s Transition to Autocracy
Just as Russia's leaders pretend that they are ruling over a democracy, they also pretend that they are ruling over an empire.
April 2008, Volume 19, Issue 2
China: From Prison to Freedom
Why has China's transition to democracy been so delayed, and what can be done to hasten it?
January 2008, Volume 19, Issue 1
Taming Extremist Parties: Lessons from Europe
The history of twentieth-century European communist parties shows that extremists can be moderated by robust democratic institutions. Without them, however, the inclusion of extremist parties may undermine democracy.
October 2007, Volume 18, Issue 4
Is East-Central Europe Backsliding? From Democracy Fatigue to Populist Backlash
The populist backlash against corruption, the CEE transition-era elites, and the liberal consensus has led to a democratic crisis, but does not portend systemic change.
October 2007, Volume 18, Issue 4
Is East-Central Europe Backsliding? The Political-Party Landscape
The real danger in East-Central Europe comes not from populist ideology or attempts to subvert democracy, but rather from the manipulation of democratic procedures by those in power.
October 2007, Volume 18, Issue 4
Is East-Central Europe Backsliding? Leninist Legacies, Pluralist Dilemmas
To understand how East-Central European societies have evolved since 1989, we must understand the building blocks that contribute to the establishment and functioning of open societies.
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
When Will the Chinese People Be Free?
Rising levels of wealth and schooling make it highly likely that China will be a "Partly Free" country by 2015 and a "Free" one ten years after that.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
How Will China Democratize?
No one should underrate the will and skill that the ruling Chinese Communist Party will put into keeping its grip on power.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
China’s Long March to Freedom
China is gradually changing. In the coming years, the pursuit of individual dignity and human rights will increasingly come to the fore.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
Communism’s Many Legacies in East-Central Europe
Democracy is facing hard times in the region, but the shape of the problems varies according to the differing informal legacies of communism in individual countries.
July 2005, Volume 16, Issue 3
Transitions from Postcommunism
What made the “color revolutions” of the early 2000s possible? There were 7 factors that allowed for these democratic breakthroughs. Today, Venezuela has 6 of them, and it may soon have the last one it needs
April 2005, Volume 16, Issue 2
Ukraine’s Orange Revolution: The Opposition’s Road to Success
Ukraine's opposition had been trying to oust President Leonid Kuchma's semi-authoritarian regime since its alleged involvement in the murder of journalist Georgi Gongadze in 2000. What brought success in 2004?
April 2005, Volume 16, Issue 2
The End of Postcommunism in Romania
The 2004 elections saw the defeat of the former communists who ruled Romania for most of the period since the fall of communism. Will the country's new, democratic, and pro-European government be able to break with the semi-authoritarian habits of its postcommunist predecessors?
January 2005, Volume 16, Issue 1
The 2004 Freedom House Survey: Worrisome Signs, Modest Shifts
Modest progress in the muslim-majority countries is complemented by mass mobilization for democracy and freedom in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia ranks as Not Free for the first time since the fall of communism.
April 2004, Volume 15, Issue 2
Exchange: The Czech Past and the Cuban Future
In an exchange of letters, leading Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya discusses with Vaclav Havel the lessons that the Czechoslovak experience offers to Cubans seeking a democratic transition in thier own country.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
China’s Changing of the Guard: Authoritarian Resilience
Successful institutionalization will help the regime survive the pressures of advanced modernization and integration with the global economy.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
China’s Changing of the Guard: The Limits of Authoritarian Resilience
The regime has only institutionalized itself partially and temporarily; institutional norms are currently eroding, and this is likely to continue.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
China’s Changing of the Guard: Threats to Party Supremacy
The Communist Party’s adaptation to China’s new social elites will lead to a democratic transition only, if at all, at the expense of regime continuity.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
China’s Changing of the Guard: The Problem of State Weakness
The Chinese state is much weaker than most people realize, which bodes ill for the country’s democratic prospects.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
China’s Changing of the Guard: State Capacity on the Rebound
The Chinese state has become more efficient, constrained, and responsive—improvements that could lay a base for a successful transition.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
China’s Changing of the Guard: The New Inequality
Class politics is an ever more important reality, but the growth of capitalism is not likely to produce pressures for democratization.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
China’s Changing of the Guard: The Rise of the Technocrats
With both reformists and leftists pushed aside, political center-stage now belongs to new pragmatists both inside and outside the Communist Party.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
China’s Changing of the Guard: A Volcanic Stability
The outward appearance of a powerful and confident Communist party-state masks a deep crisis.
January 2003, Volume 14, Issue 1
China’s Changing of the Guard: Contradictory Trends and Confusing Signals
Political renewal is contending with a process of political decay that has yet to reach an end.
October 2002, Volume 13, Issue 4
Pluralism by Default in Moldova
During the 1990s, politics in the small post-Soviet state of Moldova was more competitive than anyone would have expected. Yet there was less to this surprising pluralism than met the eye.
October 2002, Volume 13, Issue 4
Dark Days in Belarus
Why did Belarusians return dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka to power in September 2001? Could a better-managed opposition campaign have made a difference?
October 2002, Volume 13, Issue 4
Post-Election Blues in Ukraine
In March 2002, three-fifths of Ukraine’s voters chose a party or coalition opposed to the overbearing presidential apparatus of Leonid Kuchma, but the antipresidential forces found themselves frozen out in the new parliament.
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 Balkans: Democracy Without Choices
The gravest challenges facing democracy in the Balkans are problems not of ethnicity or postcommunism, but of citizen disaffection and disillusionment.
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.
April 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2
Bulgaria’s Royal Elections
Last year, Bulgarians elected their newly returned former king as prime minister and then, in a shocking upset, ousted their incumbent president. What do these results portend for the future of Bulgarian democracy?
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
Slovenia’s Smooth Transition
The story of this small former Yugoslav republic offers an example of how—if circumstances are right—it may be possible for a country to reform its way out of communism and into parliamentary democracy and a market economy.
January 2002, Volume 13, Issue 1
The Weakness of Postcommunist Civil Society
Recent studies suggest that civil society in the postcommunist countries is significantly weaker than in other types of democracies, old or new. Can this legacy of communism be overcome? If not, what are the implications for democracy?
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
Hong Kong: The Perils of Semidemocracy
Hong Kong has experienced a smooth transition from British to Chinese rule, but signs of political, economic, and social malaise mean that further steps toward fuller democracy are needed.
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
Ten Years After the Soviet Breakup
The Editors’ introduction to “Ten Years After the Soviet Breakup.”
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
Ten Years After the Soviet Breakup: The Primacy of History and Culture
The 15 states of the former Soviet fall into three broad categories, largely defined by fault lines of history and culture.
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
Ten Years After the Soviet Breakup: From Democratization to Guided Democracy
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.
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
Ten Years After the Soviet Breakup: The Advantages of Radical Reform
The failures of post-Soviet reform notwithstanding, serious strides have been made toward economic and political transformation.
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
Ten Years After the Soviet Breakup: Disillusionment in the Caucasus and Central Asia
In the southern reaches of what was once the USSR, democracy seems far off. Can that change?
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
Ten Years After the Soviet Breakup: Sovereignty and Uncertainty in Ukraine
Ukraine has secured its independence, but remains troubled by slow growth, corruption, and an overly strong presidency.
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
Ten Years After the Soviet Breakup: Russia’s Hybrid Regime
In Russia, formally democratic institutions coexist uneasily with the reality of tightly consolidated bureaucratic and executive power.
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
Ten Years After the Soviet Breakup: Putin’s Path
Although his methods are hardly democratic, Putin’s efforts to strengthen the Russian state may help democracy in the long term.
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
Ten Years After the Soviet Breakup: Going Backwards
A leading Russian oppositionist speaks out against continuing official assaults on self-government and human rights.
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
Ten Years After the Soviet Breakup: A Mixed Record, An Uncertain Future
Despite huge changes, the events of the last ten years raise doubts about the notion of “democratic transition” itself.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
History and Memory: The Revolutions of 1989-91
There has been surprisingly little celebration of the tenth anniversary of the revolutions that brought down communism. The exaggerated hopes of the time have given way to disillusionment, but the real achievements of many of the postcommunist countries should not be discounted.
July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3
Serbia’s Prudent Revolution
A bloodless revolution toppled the corruption-ridden 13-year-old regime of Slobodan Milosevic and brought to power a team led by committed democrats. Although strains exist within the new 18-party ruling coalition, there are strong reasons for it to hold together during the current period of transition.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
Markets, Law, and Democracy
The experience of “bandit capitalism” or “tyrant capitalism” in postcommunist societies shows that markets cannot work properly without a community of trust and mutual respect. Such a community can be achieved only where there is a rule of law, applied by able and independent judges.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
Russia Under Putin: The Feudal Analogy
The analogy with feudalism helps us understand the baffling changes that unexpectedly appeared during the transition away from communist rule.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
Chile’s Elections: The New Face of the Right
The unexpectedly strong showing of media-savvy rightist candidate Joaquín Lavín in the 1999 presidential elections and the move to the center by Concertación candidate Ricardo Lagos suggest that Chile has begun to put the ghosts of Allende and Pinochet to rest.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
Eastern Europe: The International Context
Nowhere else has the impact of international factors on democratization been as apparent as in Central and Eastern Europe. Integration into European and Euro-Atlantic structures is one particularly strong democratizing force.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
Explaining Communism’s Appeal
A review of Francois Furet's last book, The Passing of an Illusion.
July 1999, Volume 10, Issue 3
The Churchill Hypothesis
Review of Democracy and Its Alternatives: Understanding Post-Communist Societies, by Richard Rose, William Mishler, and Christian Haerpfer.
April 1999, Volume 10, Issue 2
What Went Wrong in Russia? The Haunting Presence of Marxism-Leninism
Read the full essay here.
January 1999, Volume 10, Issue 1
The Post-Cold War World: Integration and Disintegration
Read the full essay here.
January 1998, Volume 9, Issue 1
Will China Democratize? The Road From Socialism
Read the full essay here.
January 1998, Volume 9, Issue 1
Will China Democratize? The Halting Advance of Pluralism
Read the full essay here.
January 1998, Volume 9, Issue 1
Will China Democratize? The End of Communism
Read the full essay here.
October 1996, Volume 7, Issue 4
How Different Are the Postcommunist Transitions?
Read the full essay here.
January 1996, Volume 7, Issue 1
Civil Society After Communism
The Editors’ introduction to “Civil Society After Communism.”
July 1995, Volume 6, Issue 3
Departures from Communism
A review of From Reform to Revolution: The Demise of Communism in China and the Soviet Union, by Minxin Pei and Sowing the Seeds of Democracy in China: Political Reform in the Deng Xiaoping Era, by Merlec Goldman.
January 1995, Volume 6, Issue 1
Tyranny and Myth
A review of The Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism in Russia, 1917-1991, by Martin Malia and Modern Tyrants: The Power and Prevalence of Evil in Our Age, by Daniel Chirot.
July 1994, Volume 5, Issue 3
Rethinking Civil Society: Postcommunism and the Problem of Trust
Read the full essay here.
April 1994, Volume 5, Issue 2
Is Russian Democracy Doomed? A Communist Setback
Read the full essay here.