July 2023

Volume 34, Issue 3

Why Israeli Democracy Is in Crisis

When Israel’s new government introduced proposals that threatened the judiciary’s independence, the country erupted in protest. These tensions will not soon end. Likud, once a center-right party, is now as populist as the European far right.

Kuwait’s Democratic Promise

This Arab state is different. It is far more liberal than any other Gulf kingdom, and it may even have a path, with much trial and effort, to becoming the region’s first democratic constitutional monarchy.

The End of Village Democracy in China

Under Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party has wound down local elections and reasserted control in the countryside. But putting these burdens on its own shoulders brings new and significant risks for Beijing.

Making Liberalism Work

Democratic capitalism is in crisis. But if we are looking to salvage liberalism’s ideals, we should look to the course set by postwar Germany. It offers powerful lessons for the present.

How Oppositions Fight Back

Behind today’s authoritarian wave are democratically elected leaders who use and abuse institutions to undermine the system that brought them to power. But with the right strategies, opposition forces can slow or stop these would-be autocrats.

Symposium: Is India Still a Democracy?

Is India Still a Democracy?

In this symposium, the Journal of Democracy brings together leading scholars of India to perform a biopsy on the state of that country’s fragile democracy, and to offer us a prognosis for its future.

Free

Why India’s Democracy Is Dying

Under Narendra Modi, India is maintaining the trappings of democracy while it increasingly harasses the opposition, attacks minorities, and stifles dissent. It can still reverse course, but the damage is mounting.

Modi’s Undeclared Emergency

Since the beginning of the second Modi government, an emboldened BJP has launched a steady, comprehensive, and unprecedented attack on civil liberties, personal rights, and free speech across India.

The Exaggerated Death of Indian Democracy

It is true that politics under the BJP is a break from the past. But attempts to reduce the country’s present condition to democratic backsliding misunderstands the moment and is an injustice to India’s journey as a democracy.

Documents on Democracy

Activist Xu Zhiyong on the Imperative for a Democratic China; Historian Timothy Snyder on “Russophobia”; Fadzayi Mahere on why Zimbabwe is a tragedy; a call for the release of the speaker of Tunisia’s parliament, Rached Ghannouchi; a Burmese student recounts her experience as a strike leader following the 2021 military coup.