Journal of Democracy April 2020 Issue: How to Beat a Populist

Malfeasance and misrule in China: What has the COVID-19 pandemic revealed? How to beat a populist: Lessons for how opposition parties can defeat populism at the ballot box. Plus: For a limited time, access the journal of democracy”s full archive free of charge.

In the April issue: Tsinghua University professor Xu Zhangrun offers a stinging indictment of China’s authoritarian system and its handling of COVID-19. “The storied bureaucratic apparatus that is responsible for the unfettered outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan,” Xu writes, “repeatedly hid or misrepresented the facts…. Their behavior has reflected their complete lack of interest in the welfare and the lives of normal people.”

The pushback against populism: In a special package, JoD contributors review the records and reflect on the prospects of opposition parties as they confront governing populists:

• F. Michael Wuthrich and Melvyn Ingleby explain how “radical love” proved a winning campaign strategy in defeating Turkey’s ruling party;
• Jarosław Kuisz and Karolina Wigura argue that liberals must offer a more compelling story—and engage the public’s emotion—to win back voters in East-Central Europe;
• Takis S. Pappas charts the rise and fall of Greece’s new populists; and
• Felipe Burbano de Lara and Carlos de la Torre argue that postpopulist Ecuador shows referendums are a dangerous tool for undoing illiberal legacies.

Also in this issue:

• Laurence Whitehead considers the 2019 U.K. election and the lessons of the Brexit vote;
• Jeff Conroy-Krutz looks at why citizens in sub-Saharan Africa appear to support their leaders’ attacks on media freedom;
• Daniel Brumberg and Maryam Ben Salem assess Tunisia’s power-sharing pact and the stalling of democratic change;
• María Victoria Murillo and Rodrigo Zarazaga unpack the Peronist victory in Argentina’s elections;
• Sarah Repucci presents the annual Freedom House survey of civil and political rights around the world;
• Frédéric Volpi recounts how Algeria’s demonstrators tried and failed to prevent fraudulent presidential elections;
• Yun-Han Chu, Kai-Ping Huang, Marta Lagos, and Robert Mattes analyze disappointment with democracy’s failure to deliver; and
• M. Steven Fish and Neil A. Abrams review Democracies Divided: The Global Challenge of Political Polarization.

VIEW THE FULL TABLE OF CONTENTS AT WWW.JOURNALOFDEMOCRACY.ORG.