January 2024, Volume 35, Issue 1
Egypt’s general-turned-president has spent lavishly, cemented the military’s political and economic control, and, afraid of suffering Mubarak’s fate, become increasingly repressive. But with crushing inflation and everyday people suffering, is Sisi losing his grip?
July 2022, Volume 33, Issue 3
The first two months of the war alone turned the Russian clock back decades, undoing thirty years of post-Soviet economic gains and reducing the country to an international pariah state.
July 2022, Volume 33, Issue 3
A group of corrupt authoritarian powerholders has impoverished Sri Lanka and even brought starvation to the island. But behind their misrule lies the deeper and longer-term problem of unconstrained majority rule.
October 2020, Volume 31, Issue 4
South Africa’s government sought to heed expert advice with its covid lockdown, yet shortcomings in state capacity fatally undermined both the virus response and efforts to address its devastating economic toll.
October 2019, Volume 30, Issue 4
Amid mass protests, the personalist autocracy of longtime Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir fell to an April 2019 coup. With the country now being governed by a council composed of both opposition leaders and powerful security-service coupmakers, prospects for democratization remain uncertain.
October 2014, Volume 25, Issue 4
A review of The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from World War I to the Present by David Runciman.
January 2011, Volume 22, Issue 1
As an analysis of recent electoral results shows, the world’s emerging democracies are weathering the global economic crisis surprisingly well. Yet they remain under an even sharper threat from their own failures to deliver good governance.
January 2011, Volume 22, Issue 1
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
Latin America’s hard-won democratic gains must be defended by addressing he economic disparities fueling a drift toward populism.
January 2010, Volume 21, Issue 1
The short-term political impact of the economic crisis has been less dramatic than initially expected, but it may have lasting effects on the “quality” of democracy, including the legitimacy of prevailing financial institutions.
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
Ukraine has secured its independence, but remains troubled by slow growth, corruption, and an overly strong presidency.
October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4
In the wake of the East Asian economic crisis of 1997-98, how has the appeal to “Asian Values” fared as a rhetorical prop for undemocratic rule?
April 2001, Volume 12, Issue 2
The Editors’ introduction to “High Anxiety in the Andes.”
April 2001, Volume 12, Issue 2
Despite recent progress in the government’s negotiations with rebel groups, Colombia’s problems remain acute: continued violence, growing human rights abuses, severe income inequality, and a depressed economy.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
The political dimensions of the 1997-99 Asian financial crisis have been largely ignored. Yet political factors are crucial to understanding the crisis and the differing ways in which the democracies and authoritarian regimes in the region responded to it.
April 1999, Volume 10, Issue 2
Read the full essay here.
January 1997, Volume 8, Issue 1
Read the full essay here.
April 1994, Volume 5, Issue 2
Read the full essay here.
April 1994, Volume 5, Issue 2
Read the full essay here.
January 1993, Volume 4, Issue 1
Read the full essay here.
Winter 1990, Volume 1, Issue 1
Read the full essay here.
A few years ago Anura Kumara Dissanayake led a struggling political party with bleak prospects. Now he is Sri Lanka’s newly elected president. The hardest work may still lie ahead.
Don’t let the Hungarian prime minister’s globe-trotting and grandstanding fool you. Behind the posturing and attempts to steal the spotlight is a strongman who feels his position slipping.
In a matter of weeks, the Russian autocrat has erased his country’s prosperity in a feckless attempt to rebuild a doomed empire.
