January 2012

Volume 23, Issue 1

China and East Asian Democracy

Turkey Under the AKP

Turkey Under the AKP: Civil-Military Relations Transformed

Recent years have seen a transformation in Turkish civil-military relations—away from the traditional picture of weak elected officials overseen by a strong military, to one of a strengthened civilian government and a military with decreased influence. This article explores the questions of how this transformation has occurred, whether it will last, and what it indicates…

Turkey Under the AKP: Are Civil Liberties Safe?

In the West, Turkey is considered a model for a secular democracy in the Muslim world, yet the country finds itself mired in a crisis of civil rights and liberties under a third term of the pro-Islamic AKP government. Ironically, while the government maintains a discourse on political reform—including constitutional amendments—the country is bitterly divided…

Turkey Under the AKP: The Kurdish Question

Turkish state policy toward the Kurds, the Republic of Turkey’s largest ethnic minority, has evolved from denial and mandatory assimilation to cultural recognition to acknowledgment of the Kurds’ contested status as a political problem demanding political solutions. The election of 36 Kurdish-nationalist lawmakers, most of whom now sit in parliament as representatives of the Peace…

Corruption in India

Debating Electoral Systems

Election Watch

Reports on elections in Argentina, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Cameroon, The Gambia, Guatemala, Guyana, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liberia, Morocco, Nicaragua, Oman, Poland, Russia, Tunisia, Zambia.

Documents on Democracy

Excerpts from: the concession speech of former Zambian president Rupiah Banda; the inauguration speech of Zambian president Michael Sata; the “Russia Development Index 2010–2011” report.