Section: Books in Review

October 2023, Volume 34, Issue 4

The Meddling Kingdom

A review of Beijing Rules: How China Weaponized Its Economy to Confront the World, by Bethany Allen.

April 2023, Volume 34, Issue 2

Under the Influence

A review of Beijing’s Global Media Offensive: China’s Uneven Campaign to Influence Asia and the World by Joshua Kurlantzick.

January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1

Shell Game

Trillions of dollars are stashed in the world’s secret financial system, where they are keeping autocratic regimes afloat and fueling democracy’s decline.

January 2023, Volume 34, Issue 1

Friend of the Devil

McKinsey’s work is bankrolled by major corporations and governments around the world. How should the famous consulting firm choose the clients it represents and the projects it takes on?

October 2022, Volume 33, Issue 4

The Mandarin in the Machine

Beijing is bent on deploying mass surveillance to eliminate threats to its rule. It is terrifying—and the latest example of its determination to remold society.

July 2022, Volume 33, Issue 3

Cancel Toqueville?

Does the author of the nineteenth-century classic, Democracy in America, still matter?

April 2022, Volume 33, Issue 2

A Blueprint for Europe

Europe appeared ready to turn its back on the pessimistic vision of populists—and then Putin upended the continent. A new book may serve as a textbook for progress, or a signpost of democracy’s dashed hopes.

July 2020, Volume 31, Issue 3

The Prince

A review of MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed bin Salman, by Ben Hubbard.

July 2018, Volume 29, Issue 3

Enrolling India

A review of How India Became Democratic: Citizenship and the Making of the Universal Franchise by Ornit Shani.

April 2016, Volume 27, Issue 2

Making Democratic Waves

A review of Making Waves: Democratic Contention in Europe and Latin America Since the Revolutions of 1848 by Kurt Weyland.

January 2016, Volume 27, Issue 1

Transition Leaders Speak

A review of Democratic Transitions: Conversations with World Leaders, edited by Sergio Bitar and Abraham F. Lowenthal.

January 2015, Volume 26, Issue 1

Michnik’s Homage to Havel

A review of An Uncanny Era: Conversations Between Václav Havel and Adam Michnik, translated and edited by Elzbieta Matynia.

October 2014, Volume 25, Issue 4

Flirting with Disaster

A review of The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from World War I to the Present by David Runciman.

January 2014, Volume 25, Issue 1

Power Failure?

A review of The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn’t What It Used to Be by Moisés Naím.

October 2013, Volume 24, Issue 4

Separated at Birth?

A review of The Promise of Power: The Origins of Democracy in India and Autocracy in Pakistan by Maya Tudor.

July 2013, Volume 24, Issue 3

Kishore’s World

The widely hailed writings of Singapore’s Kishore Mahbubani, including his latest book, The Great Convergence: Asia, the West, and the Logic of One World, reveal a remarkably narrow and Manichean worldview.

April 2013, Volume 24, Issue 2

Review Essay: A Voice from the North Korean Gulag

Evidence of the evil perpetrated in North Korea’s prison camps continues to emerge, as most vividly highlighted by Blaine Harden’s Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West.

April 2010, Volume 21, Issue 2

What Makes Legislatures Strong?

A review of The Handbook of National Legislatures: A Global Survey by M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig, and Legislative Power in Emerging African Democracies edited by Joel D. Barkan.

January 2010, Volume 21, Issue 1

Democratic Triumph, Scholarly Pessimism

By any measure, democratization has achieved remarkable advances over the past twenty years. Why, then, have so many of the leading works written on the topic during this period been so full of gloom?

April 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2

Tocqueville’s Frontiers

A review of Conversations with Tocqueville: The Global Democratic Revolution in the Twenty-First Century edited by Aurelian Craiutu and Sheldon Gellar and Tocqueville et les frontières de la démocratie by Nestor Capdevila.

October 2008, Volume 19, Issue 4

Mistaken Identity

A review of Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy by Natan Sharansky.

April 2008, Volume 19, Issue 2

India’s Improbable Success

A review of India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guha and The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence and India's Future by Martha C. Nussbaum.

January 2006, Volume 17, Issue 1

Islam and Liberty

A review of The Universal Hunger for Liberty: Why the Clash of Civilizations Is Not Inevitable. By Michael Novak.

October 2005, Volume 16, Issue 4

Minding the Polls

A review of Beyond Free and Fair: Monitoring Elections and Building Democracy by Eric C. Bjornlund.

April 2005, Volume 16, Issue 2

Freedom’s Edge

A review of The Democratic Advantage: How Democracies Promote Prosperity and Peace by Morton H. Halperin, Joseph T. Siegle, and Michael M. Weinstein.

January 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1

Putin’s Deep Freeze

A review of Popular Choice and Managed Democracy: The Russian Elections of 1999 and 2000 by Timothy J. Colton and Michael McFaul; Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State by David Satter; and Putin's Russia by Lilia Shevtsova.

July 2003, Volume 14, Issue 3

After the Shooting Stops

A review of "Ending Civil Wars: The Implementation of Peace Agreements" Edited by Stephen John Stedman, Donald Rothchild, and Elizabeth M. Cousens.

January 2002, Volume 13, Issue 1

Reconstructing Afghanistan

A review of Afghanistan’s Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics, and the Rise of the Taliban by Larry P. Goodson; and Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, by Ahmed Rashid.

October 2001, Volume 12, Issue 4

Defying the Odds

A review of Building the Rule of Law: Francis Nyalali and the Road to Judicial Independence in Africa By Jennifer A. Widner.

July 2001, Volume 12, Issue 3

Two Models of Democracy

A review of Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries by Arend Lijphart and Elections as Instruments of Democracy: Majoritarian and Proportional Views, by G. Bingham Powell, Jr.