Democracy in Decline?

Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, where he directs the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Marc F. Plattner is the vice president for research and studies at the National Endowment for Democracy. Plattner and Diamond are founding coeditors of the Journal of Democracy and co-chairs of the Research Council of the International Forum for Democratic Studies.

• 3 0. Introduction (by Plattner, Marc F.); 4 1. Why is Democracy Performing so Poorly? (by Fukuyama, Francis); 5 2. The Weight of Geopolitics (by Kagan, Robert); 6 3. Crisis and Transition, but Not Decline (by Schmitter, Philippe C.); 7 4. The Myth of Democratic Recession (by Levitsky, Steven); 8 5. Democracy Aid at 25: Time to Choose (by Carothers, Thomas); 9 6. Facing Up to the Democratic Recession (by Diamond, Larry); 2 0. Acknowledgements; 1 0. Foreword (by Rice, Condoleezza); 11 0. About the Authors; 12 0. Index; 10 0. Notes; 1 0. Foreword (by Rice, Condoleezza); 2 0. Acknowledgments; 3 0. Introduction (by Plattner, Marc F.); 4 1. Why Is Democracy Performing So Poorly? (by Kagan, Robert); 5 2. The Weight of Geopolitics (by Fukuyama, Francis); 6 3. Crisis and Transition, but Not Decline; 7 4. The Myth of the Democratic Recession (by Levitsky, Steven); 8 5. Democracy Aid at 25: Time to Choose (by Carothers, Thomas); 9 6. Facing Up to the Democratic Recession (by Diamond, Larry); 10 0. Notes; 11 0. About the Authors

The authors share the understanding that some more recent events-the rise of the Islamic state in the Middle East, China's muscleflexing in the South China Sea, and Russia's annexation of Crimea-are elements in a bigger picture that suggests the rules-based international order built by democratic powers should no longer be taken for granted. Choice In their illuminating collection, Diamond and Plattner have assembled leading experts who offer mostly grim assessments of the situation. Foreign Affairs