Pub Date : 2024-07-01DOI: 10.1353/jod.2024.a930426
Milan Vaishnav
Abstract:At first glance, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s narrow 2024 general election victory—a win only made possible thanks to the cooperation of alliance partners—suggests a return to a previous era of coalition government in India. While the ruling party may be weakened, the nature of the political order has fundamentally shifted in ways that will have a lasting impact on Indian democracy. India is witnessing the dawn of a "Second Republic," an inflection point that is equal in magnitude to the constitutional moment in 1950, when India's "First Republic" was established. Several elements of the Second Republic were visible prior to these elections, and the BJP's narrow victory has not dislodged them. The nature of electoral democracy, liberal constitutionalism, national identity, secularism, and federalism have all undergone significant transformations. Yet, true to India's nature, its new political settlement cannot be readily captured using simple binary distinctions.
{"title":"The Rise of India's Second Republic","authors":"Milan Vaishnav","doi":"10.1353/jod.2024.a930426","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2024.a930426","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:At first glance, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s narrow 2024 general election victory—a win only made possible thanks to the cooperation of alliance partners—suggests a return to a previous era of coalition government in India. While the ruling party may be weakened, the nature of the political order has fundamentally shifted in ways that will have a lasting impact on Indian democracy. India is witnessing the dawn of a \"Second Republic,\" an inflection point that is equal in magnitude to the constitutional moment in 1950, when India's \"First Republic\" was established. Several elements of the Second Republic were visible prior to these elections, and the BJP's narrow victory has not dislodged them. The nature of electoral democracy, liberal constitutionalism, national identity, secularism, and federalism have all undergone significant transformations. Yet, true to India's nature, its new political settlement cannot be readily captured using simple binary distinctions.","PeriodicalId":48227,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Democracy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141702749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-01DOI: 10.1353/jod.2024.a930431
Duncan McCargo, R. Wadipalapa
Abstract:Political unity is a good thing—except when it is not. This essay argues that recent elections in Malaysia (2022), Thailand (2023), and Indonesia (2024) illustrate a growing trend towards toxic forms of unity. Toxic unity occurs when politicians who are supposed to be at opposite ends of the political spectrum join forces, citing the common good while in fact pursuing opportunistic goals. Features of toxic unity include improbable bedfellows, reputational whitewashing, clandestine deals, hidden brokerage, exclusionary agendas, discursive appeals, and voter alienation. Some toxic unity coalitions are proclaimed before polling day, while others are secret pacts.
{"title":"Southeast Asia's Toxic Alliances","authors":"Duncan McCargo, R. Wadipalapa","doi":"10.1353/jod.2024.a930431","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2024.a930431","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Political unity is a good thing—except when it is not. This essay argues that recent elections in Malaysia (2022), Thailand (2023), and Indonesia (2024) illustrate a growing trend towards toxic forms of unity. Toxic unity occurs when politicians who are supposed to be at opposite ends of the political spectrum join forces, citing the common good while in fact pursuing opportunistic goals. Features of toxic unity include improbable bedfellows, reputational whitewashing, clandestine deals, hidden brokerage, exclusionary agendas, discursive appeals, and voter alienation. Some toxic unity coalitions are proclaimed before polling day, while others are secret pacts.","PeriodicalId":48227,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Democracy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141715770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-01DOI: 10.1353/jod.2024.a922841
William Galston
Abstract: Bryan Garsten's essay suggests that liberal polities should be understood as offering "refuge" from overweening public power. While there are sound arguments to support this approach, it downplays the affirmative exercise of public power in the liberal state and leads to policy proposals—such as a more generous stance toward refugees—that may not make sense when taking into account both the right of political communities to put the needs of their members first and the considerations that have led to rising doubts throughout Western democracies about accepting large numbers of refugees at this time.
{"title":"The Limits of Liberalism","authors":"William Galston","doi":"10.1353/jod.2024.a922841","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2024.a922841","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Bryan Garsten's essay suggests that liberal polities should be understood as offering \"refuge\" from overweening public power. While there are sound arguments to support this approach, it downplays the affirmative exercise of public power in the liberal state and leads to policy proposals—such as a more generous stance toward refugees—that may not make sense when taking into account both the right of political communities to put the needs of their members first and the considerations that have led to rising doubts throughout Western democracies about accepting large numbers of refugees at this time.","PeriodicalId":48227,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Democracy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140357087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-01DOI: 10.1353/jod.2024.a922836
K. Opalo
Abstract: The recent coups in Africa do not portend a return to praetorian politics in the region. They are the outcomes of country-specific historical processes associated with the underdevelopment of state capacity, the decay of political institutions, and the failures of electoral politics to improve citizens' material conditions. At the same time, the coups are an important warning regarding the state of democracy in Africa. Surveys show that majorities of Africans harbor both a deep dissatisfaction with democracy and an openness to military interventions to address civilian political dysfunction. While coup contagion is a remote possibility due to strong norms against military rule in much of the region, popular dissatisfaction with democracy and permissiveness towards military interventions in politics present a real risk of autocratization through elections.
{"title":"The Truth About Africa's Coups","authors":"K. Opalo","doi":"10.1353/jod.2024.a922836","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2024.a922836","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: The recent coups in Africa do not portend a return to praetorian politics in the region. They are the outcomes of country-specific historical processes associated with the underdevelopment of state capacity, the decay of political institutions, and the failures of electoral politics to improve citizens' material conditions. At the same time, the coups are an important warning regarding the state of democracy in Africa. Surveys show that majorities of Africans harbor both a deep dissatisfaction with democracy and an openness to military interventions to address civilian political dysfunction. While coup contagion is a remote possibility due to strong norms against military rule in much of the region, popular dissatisfaction with democracy and permissiveness towards military interventions in politics present a real risk of autocratization through elections.","PeriodicalId":48227,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Democracy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140352923","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-01DOI: 10.1353/jod.2024.a922840
Nadia Urbinati
Abstract: This response to Bryan Garsten's essay on liberalism as refuge examines the risks that liberalism faces from within. The greatest of these risks is that liberalism loses its ability to promote moderation in human behavior. Liberalism is a culture of refuge, not of resurrection or liberation; it has a realistic and pessimistic vein that accepts human beings as they are and wants not to make them self-destructive or destructive of others. Yet if liberalism is a fortress equipped only for an external enemy (political or state power), it is bound to be weak and unprepared against its own internal threat to freedom; it may thereby become a prison. The goal of liberalism should be self-limitation.
{"title":"Liberalism as Fortress and Prison","authors":"Nadia Urbinati","doi":"10.1353/jod.2024.a922840","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2024.a922840","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: This response to Bryan Garsten's essay on liberalism as refuge examines the risks that liberalism faces from within. The greatest of these risks is that liberalism loses its ability to promote moderation in human behavior. Liberalism is a culture of refuge, not of resurrection or liberation; it has a realistic and pessimistic vein that accepts human beings as they are and wants not to make them self-destructive or destructive of others. Yet if liberalism is a fortress equipped only for an external enemy (political or state power), it is bound to be weak and unprepared against its own internal threat to freedom; it may thereby become a prison. The goal of liberalism should be self-limitation.","PeriodicalId":48227,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Democracy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140354341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-01DOI: 10.1353/jod.2024.a922835
Gino Pauselli, María-José Urzúa
Abstract: During the past decades, the rights of sexual minorities have been subject to both expansion and resistance at domestic and international levels. This essay investigates the resistance to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) rights by focusing on the position of autocratic regimes in international organizations. It examines the history and evolution of discussions regarding SOGI within the United Nations (UN) and presents an analysis of the positions taken by countries in all SOGI resolutions adopted by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Democracies and autocracies are clearly divided on the topic of LGBTQ+ rights, with the latter vehemently opposing proposals to expand sexual minorities' rights. This autocratic resistance is rooted in fears of empowered minorities challenging the status quo and the perceived threat of SOGI rights as a gateway to broader liberal values. By leveraging cultural anxieties and joining forces with other nondemocratic regimes, autocracies exploit traditional values to resist the expansion of international liberal norms. The United Nations must adopt policy recommendations aimed at countering opposition to SOGI rights by emphasizing the universality of human rights, combating cultural relativism, and reframing the national sovereignty argument to garner broader support for SOGI rights.
{"title":"Why Autocracies Fear LGBTQ+ Rights","authors":"Gino Pauselli, María-José Urzúa","doi":"10.1353/jod.2024.a922835","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2024.a922835","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: During the past decades, the rights of sexual minorities have been subject to both expansion and resistance at domestic and international levels. This essay investigates the resistance to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) rights by focusing on the position of autocratic regimes in international organizations. It examines the history and evolution of discussions regarding SOGI within the United Nations (UN) and presents an analysis of the positions taken by countries in all SOGI resolutions adopted by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Democracies and autocracies are clearly divided on the topic of LGBTQ+ rights, with the latter vehemently opposing proposals to expand sexual minorities' rights. This autocratic resistance is rooted in fears of empowered minorities challenging the status quo and the perceived threat of SOGI rights as a gateway to broader liberal values. By leveraging cultural anxieties and joining forces with other nondemocratic regimes, autocracies exploit traditional values to resist the expansion of international liberal norms. The United Nations must adopt policy recommendations aimed at countering opposition to SOGI rights by emphasizing the universality of human rights, combating cultural relativism, and reframing the national sovereignty argument to garner broader support for SOGI rights.","PeriodicalId":48227,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Democracy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140355831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-01DOI: 10.1353/jod.2024.a922833
Veronica Anghel, Erik Jones
Abstract: Why did Hungarian democracy have a harder time developing and rooting itself than democracy in other countries? The answer lies in the overlapping institutions and incentives that create democratic resilience. Hungary's political elites never finished their constitutional transition from communism to democracy by agreeing on a new democratic constitution. The 1998 elections polarized Hungarian politics around competing conceptions of democracy in ways that made it hard to reach consensus on a shared constitutional arrangement. Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party rose to power in the late 1990s by offering a strong state that would protect Hungarian society from the threat of social liberalism and foreclose a potential return of communism. Orbán returned to power in 2010, on the heels of the global financial crisis, and began centralizing and entrenching power by deft manipulation of democratic institutions. The case of Hungary tells us what to look for in anticipating democratic failure and serves as a cautionary tale for the EU.
{"title":"What Went Wrong In Hungary","authors":"Veronica Anghel, Erik Jones","doi":"10.1353/jod.2024.a922833","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2024.a922833","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Why did Hungarian democracy have a harder time developing and rooting itself than democracy in other countries? The answer lies in the overlapping institutions and incentives that create democratic resilience. Hungary's political elites never finished their constitutional transition from communism to democracy by agreeing on a new democratic constitution. The 1998 elections polarized Hungarian politics around competing conceptions of democracy in ways that made it hard to reach consensus on a shared constitutional arrangement. Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party rose to power in the late 1990s by offering a strong state that would protect Hungarian society from the threat of social liberalism and foreclose a potential return of communism. Orbán returned to power in 2010, on the heels of the global financial crisis, and began centralizing and entrenching power by deft manipulation of democratic institutions. The case of Hungary tells us what to look for in anticipating democratic failure and serves as a cautionary tale for the EU.","PeriodicalId":48227,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Democracy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140355845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-01DOI: 10.1353/jod.2024.a922839
Bryan Garsten
Abstract: Frustrated by persisting inequality, oppression, and corruption in liberal societies, and disillusioned with liberalism's failures, many are stepping away. Yet liberal societies are still admirable because they offer refuge from the very people they empower . They require rulers to accept limitations on their power and provide escape hatches from the worst parts of political life. Offers of refuge may be found in opposition political parties, independent institutions, reasonably autonomous local communities, powerful civil society organizations, and the market economy. There is a nobility in offering refuge, in the safety and opportunity it presents for building something new.
{"title":"The Liberalism of Refuge","authors":"Bryan Garsten","doi":"10.1353/jod.2024.a922839","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2024.a922839","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Frustrated by persisting inequality, oppression, and corruption in liberal societies, and disillusioned with liberalism's failures, many are stepping away. Yet liberal societies are still admirable because they offer refuge from the very people they empower . They require rulers to accept limitations on their power and provide escape hatches from the worst parts of political life. Offers of refuge may be found in opposition political parties, independent institutions, reasonably autonomous local communities, powerful civil society organizations, and the market economy. There is a nobility in offering refuge, in the safety and opportunity it presents for building something new.","PeriodicalId":48227,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Democracy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140354861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-01DOI: 10.1353/jod.2024.a922838
K. Dionne
Abstract: While other African states experienced democratic erosion, Malawi has defied the odds and weathered attacks on its democracy, including those initiated by its powerful presidents. As a "hard place" for democracy—a poor country with a long authoritarian past and politically relevant ethnic divisions—what explains the resilience of Malawi's democracy? The courts and civil society served as countervailing forces against democratic backsliding. Through legal challenges and popular mobilizations, they have countered attempts by presidents to consolidate power and extend their terms. Unfortunately for Malawians, these countervailing forces were likely facilitated by other negative conditions, namely economic distress and presidential unpopularity. Malawi's experience, complemented by Zambia's recent pivot away from authoritarianization, provides some optimism for those concerned about democratic backsliding in Africa by demonstrating the potential for resilience even in challenging contexts.
{"title":"Why Malawi's Democracy Endures","authors":"K. Dionne","doi":"10.1353/jod.2024.a922838","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2024.a922838","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: While other African states experienced democratic erosion, Malawi has defied the odds and weathered attacks on its democracy, including those initiated by its powerful presidents. As a \"hard place\" for democracy—a poor country with a long authoritarian past and politically relevant ethnic divisions—what explains the resilience of Malawi's democracy? The courts and civil society served as countervailing forces against democratic backsliding. Through legal challenges and popular mobilizations, they have countered attempts by presidents to consolidate power and extend their terms. Unfortunately for Malawians, these countervailing forces were likely facilitated by other negative conditions, namely economic distress and presidential unpopularity. Malawi's experience, complemented by Zambia's recent pivot away from authoritarianization, provides some optimism for those concerned about democratic backsliding in Africa by demonstrating the potential for resilience even in challenging contexts.","PeriodicalId":48227,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Democracy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140353455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-01DOI: 10.1353/jod.2024.a922842
Jason Brennan
Abstract: In agreement with Bryan Garsten's notion of liberalism as "refuge," liberal societies are distinct in their toleration of badness. They give people the permission and even the right to do wrong. Tolerance, however, does not apply to that to which we are indifferent or to that which we approve of. True tolerance involves the refusal to police bad or defective behaviors, and it therefore makes liberal political movements inherently fragile. Even so, tolerance and "refuge" are essential because people, especially the powerful, cannot be trusted to police the right people, on the right occasions, with the right force.
{"title":"Liberal Tolerance for an Intolerant Age","authors":"Jason Brennan","doi":"10.1353/jod.2024.a922842","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2024.a922842","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: In agreement with Bryan Garsten's notion of liberalism as \"refuge,\" liberal societies are distinct in their toleration of badness. They give people the permission and even the right to do wrong. Tolerance, however, does not apply to that to which we are indifferent or to that which we approve of. True tolerance involves the refusal to police bad or defective behaviors, and it therefore makes liberal political movements inherently fragile. Even so, tolerance and \"refuge\" are essential because people, especially the powerful, cannot be trusted to police the right people, on the right occasions, with the right force.","PeriodicalId":48227,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Democracy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140355012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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