April 2001, Volume 12, Issue 2
Rediscovering Culture
A review of Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress, edited by Lawrence E. Harrison and Samuel P. Huntington.
Subject: Economic development
January 2001, Volume 12, Issue 1
Political Competition and Economic Growth
Under many nondemocratic systems, good policy is bad politics, and bad policy helps leaders stay in office. The result is poorer performance in terms of economic growth.
January 2001, Volume 12, Issue 1
Politics and Development
A review of Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-being in the World 1950-1990, by Adam Przeworski, Michael E. Alvarez, Jose Antonio Cheibub, and Fernando Limongi.
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
Mexico’s Victory: The “External” Factor
Any serious discussion of Mexico’s future must take into account its relations with the United States.
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
Comparing East Asia and Latin America: Stirrings of Mutual Recognition
Global trends toward economic and political liberalization are presenting East Asian and Latin American democracies with increasingly convergent international opportunities and constraints.
October 2000, Volume 11, Issue 4
Comparing East Asia and Latin America: Dimensions of Development
Such a comparison clearly shows a higher prevalence of democracy in Latin America and a better economic performance in East Asia. The two regions are likely to converge on both dimensions, but the gaps will remain.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
Arabs and Democracy: A Record of Failure
Democracy is spreading everywhere except in the Arab world. Arab elections are an immense masquerade. Corrupt dictatorships seek to stifle freedom of thought and to control the flow of information.
July 2000, Volume 11, Issue 3
Promoting Democracy: The Mandela-Mbeki Doctrine
The promotion of democracy in Africa has become the dominant theme of South Africa’s foreign policy. Yet the dilemmas this policy has confronted in practice have forced the government to alter its approach.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
Trouble in the Advanced Democracies? A Quarter-Century of Declining Confidence
A quarter-century after the classic study The Crisis of Democracy was published, three distinguished political scientists find that, though the “crisis” may have disappeared, public confidence is on the decline in almost all the world’s advanced democracies.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
Latin America at the Century’s Turn
Recent disappointments have led to excessive pessimism about Latin America’s economic and democratic prospects. International recognition of the region’s diversity and a sense of perspective about its setbacks will improve its chances for further success.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
Democracy, Dictatorship, and Infant Mortality
A country's political regime, regardless of its level of development, affects its social performance. Fewer children die in democracies than in dictatorships.
April 2000, Volume 11, Issue 2
The Politics of the Asian Financial Crisis
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.
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
The March of Equality
For Tocqueville, democracy’s inevitability is not merely providential. Economic growth, property rights, technology, conflict, and enlightenment all push the march toward democracy. Such a powerful idea cannot be bound to a single religious community.
January 2000, Volume 11, Issue 1
Economic Inequality and Democratic Instability
Read the full essay here.
October 1999, Volume 10, Issue 4
Debating Democracy Assistance: Toward a New Paradigm
Read the full essay here.
October 1999, Volume 10, Issue 4
Debating Democracy Assistance: A Tune-Up, Not an Overhaul
Read the full essay here.
October 1999, Volume 10, Issue 4
Debating Democracy Assistance: The Cost of Doing Nothing
Read the full essay here.
October 1999, Volume 10, Issue 4
Debating Democracy Assistance: Sometimes Less Is More
Read the full essay here.
October 1999, Volume 10, Issue 4
Exploring Globalization
Review of The Lexus and the Olive Tree, by Thomas L. Friedman.
April 1999, Volume 10, Issue 2
What Went Wrong in Russia? The Ravages of “Market Bolshevism”
Read the full essay here.
April 1999, Volume 10, Issue 2
What Went Wrong in Russia? The Problem of Fiscal Federalism
Read the full essay here.
October 1998, Volume 9, Issue 4
Liberal Voices from China: Liberalism, Equal Status, and Human Rights
Read the full essay here.
October 1998, Volume 9, Issue 4
Free Politics and Free Markets in Latin America
Read the full essay here.
July 1998, Volume 9, Issue 3
India’s Cold-Eyed Introspection
A review of Fifty Years of Indian Parliamentary Democracy, 1947-1997, by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
January 1998, Volume 9, Issue 1
Will China Democratize? Disruption Without Disintegration
Read the full essay here.
July 1997, Volume 8, Issue 3
The East Asian Prospect: A “Recipe” for Democratic Development
Read the full essay here.
July 1997, Volume 8, Issue 3
The East Asian Prospect: The Illusion of Exceptionalism
Read the full essay here.
July 1997, Volume 8, Issue 3
Theory in Pursuit of Practice
A review of The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions, by Stephan Haggard and Robert R. Kaufman.
April 1997, Volume 8, Issue 2
Can Africa Develop?
A review of Development and Democracy in Africa, by Claude Ake.
April 1995, Volume 6, Issue 2
Transcending the Clash of Cultures: Freedom, Development, and Human Worth
Read the full essay here.
January 1995, Volume 6, Issue 1
Democracy’s Future: Do Economists Know Best?
Read the full essay here.
October 1994, Volume 5, Issue 4
South Africa Turns the Corner
A review of South Africa: The Political Economy of Transformation, edited by Stephen John Stedman.
January 1994, Volume 5, Issue 1
The Axis Powers 50 Years Later: Japan’s New Politics
Read the full essay here.
July 1992, Volume 3, Issue 3
Marx, Schumpeter, and the East Asian Experience
Read the full essay here.
July 1992, Volume 3, Issue 3
Capitalism & Democracy: The Missing Link
Most highly developed societies are also stable democracies. Capitalism and democracy reinforce one another and promote a desire for universal recognition.
For Xi Jinping, the Economy Is No Longer the Priority
Beijing’s focus has been on strong and steady economic growth for decades. But China’s leader has just put an end to that era. For Xi, it’s only about power—at home and abroad.