October 1996

The Myth of Global Ethnic Conflict

• John R. Bowen

How Different Are the Postcommunist Transitions?

• Ghia Nodia

Venezuela: Democracy Hangs On

• Aníbal Romero

China’s Constitutionalist Option

• Andrew J. Nathan

Indonesia: Suharto’s Tightening Grip

• R. William Liddle

Vietnam’s Tentative Transformation

• Frederick Z. Brown

Burma’s Uneven Struggle

• Josef Silverstein

Soft Authoritarianism in Malaysia and Singapore

• Gordon P. Means

Making Amends After Communism

• Vojtech Cepl
• Mark Gillis

Reform and Frustration in Egypt

• Saad Eddin Ibrahim

Kant, Democracy, and History

• Kurt Taylor Gaubatz

Two Views of Liberalism

• Marc F. Plattner

A review of Enlightenment’s Wake: Politics and Culture at the Close of the Modern Age, by John Gray and An Intellectual History of Liberalism, by Pierre Manet.

Latin America’s Parties

• Jonathan Hartlyn

A review of Building Democratic Institutions: Party Systems in Latin America, edited by Scott Mainwaring and Timothy R. Scully.

Documents on Democracy

Excerpts from: testimony delivered at South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; remarks by National Endowment for Democracy president Carl Gershman; remarks delivered at a reception marking the opening of Mongolia’s new parliament.

News and Notes

Conference Held in Prague on “Big Government”; Report on NED’s International Forum.

Election Watch

Reports on elections in Bangladesh, Chad, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Lebanon, Mongolia, Russia, São Tomé & Príncipe, Uganda.