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Democracy

How the China Outsources Surveillance

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Beijing relies on digital surveillance to detect and stamp out budding opposition before it spills into the streets. But rather than conduct this massive undertaking itself, Lynette Ong explains in the new issue of the Journal of Democracy, the CCP hires “corporations to sniff out ‘sensitive’ words with detection software, to flood the internet with propaganda, and to deal with troublesome posts and posters.”

Read Ong’s essay along with other Journal coverage of digital surveillance in authoritarian regimes, free for a limited time, plus our entire July issue before it goes behind the paywall on July 30.

How the CCP Outsources Surveillance

Beijing knows digital surveillance of the world’s most populous nation is technologically demanding. So the Party has hired corporations to occupy the “public-opinion battlefield” and spot the trouble before it spreads.

By Lynette H. Ong

China’s AI-Powered Surveillance State

The Chinese Communist Party is dreaming an authoritarian techno-dream that is a democrat’s nightmare: ever more fine-grained state control made possible by using AI networks to pry and spy everywhere. But human unpredictability remains a force the party-state cannot tame.

By Valentin Weber

President Xi’s Surveillance State

Chinese authorities are wielding facial-recognition software, big-data analytics, and other digital technologies to control China’s citizens by monitoring and assessing their activities, both online and off.

By Xiao Qiang

The Journal of Democracy is published quarterly in January, April, July, and October. Subscribe now for full access to the Journal of Democracy archives.

Democracy

Journal of Democracy July 2026

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In April, Viktor Orbán, the long-ruling former prime minister of Hungary, and his ruling party were finally defeated. The new July issue of the Journal of Democracy features a special package of essays detailing how Péter Magyar and his Tisza party achieved a victory that once seemed impossible and what it will take to restore Hungary’s democracy.

Plus: What is “freedom philanthropy,” and why is it so important for global democracy? When does polarization devolve into violence? And how will the liberal international order survive America’s retreat?

Read the entire July 2026 issue for free through July 30.
When Polarization Turns ViolentDemocracies have always sparked conflict, disagreement, and deep ideological divisions. Polarized politics are hardly rare in democratic life. So under what conditions does polarization turn violent, and how can this danger be contained?

By Jeffrey S. Kopstein
Can Péter Magyar Restore Hungary’s Democracy?He did the hard work of defeating Viktor Orbán. But Hungary’s new prime minister faces the harder task of undoing the damage his predecessor wrought. Can he do it while avoiding the traps Orbán left in his wake?

By Kim Lane Scheppele
How Civil Society Defeated OrbánViktor Orbán was ousted by an innovative, grassroots, nationwide campaign run by local civic groups called Tisza Islands. Their success offers a new playbook for civic mobilization against aspiring autocrats.

By Hanna Folsz
Why Oppositions Lose Together and Win AloneIt was long thought that, to be successful, oppositions needed to form broad-based alliances ahead of elections. But Hungary and Turkey show that a single challenger has real advantages against a would-be autocrat.

By Edgar Șar and Pelin Ayan Musil
The Democratic DrainGlobal migration is quietly altering democratic politics in the places people leave behind. It is not just a shift in labor; it is a shift in democratic values. It may be gradual, but it can become a hidden demographic underpinning of authoritarianism.

By Justin Gest
The Power of Freedom PhilanthropyLess than one percent of philanthropy is directed to democratic freedoms. Yet freedom is essential for everything—health, education, climate—philanthropy tries to accomplish. It is the most underpriced asset, and we are due for a market correction.

By Tim Reynolds and Álvaro Salas-Castro
Why the IRGC Is the War’s Biggest WinnerThe U.S.-Israeli war in Iran has elevated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the regime’s chief coercive tool to the regime itself. Expect an Iran that is more aggressive abroad and more repressive at home.

By Saeid Golkar
Can the Liberal Order Survive America’s Retreat?No other democratic power will be able to uphold a new international order. Autocrats and illiberal coalitions are already rushing into the breach, and if they go unchecked, the damage will be lasting.

By Christina Cottiero, Emilie M. Hafner-Burton, Stephan Haggard, and Christina J. Schneider
How to Combat Transnational RepressionAuthoritarians actively threaten, intimidate, and murder exiles and opponents wherever they find them. While justice for victims is hard won, it is possible. Here is how democracies can push back.

By Siena Anstis and Marcus Michaelsen
How the CCP Outsources SurveillanceBeijing knows digital surveillance of the world’s most populous nation is technologically demanding. So the Party has hired corporations to occupy the “public-opinion battlefield” and spot the trouble before it spreads.

By Lynette H. Ong
Democracy in an Age of Networked ControlThe coercive tools of modern autocracies are highly integrated, with an ability to monitor, restrict, and shape behavior at scale and in real-time. It is time for democratic movements to adapt and respond with a decentralized resistance of their own.

By Leopoldo López
Eritrea’s Democratic FailureEritrea is one of the world’s most implacable dictatorships, led by an octogenarian who shuns any hint of accountability. The country’s democratic path was never genuinely open, and it now poses a grave risk to the Horn of Africa.

By Kjetil Tronvoll
The Danger of Democratic Backsliding in East AsiaJapan, South Korea, and Taiwan are typically seen as democratic stalwarts, on par with older established democracies. But all three countries face growing pressures that threaten its political foundations.

By Christopher Carothers

The Journal of Democracy is published quarterly in January, April, July, and October. Subscribe nowfor full access to the Journal‘s archives.

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Can We Stop Democratic Backsliding?

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Image credit: Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP via Getty Images 

Understanding Democratic Backsliding

For the last two decades, democracy has been in retreat. Autocracies now outnumber the world’s democracies, and countries that had made impressive democratic strides have been purposefully undoing those gains. Most confounding, this global democratic recession has been driven not by traditional coups but by elected leaders themselves.

Yet we have seen bright spots—notably, last month in Hungary and, before that, in Poland in 2023. To turn the tide back toward democracy, we must first understand what is driving democratic backsliding and how it is carried out, as well as what prodemocracy leaders and citizens can do to counter these forces. The following Journal of Democracy essays, now free for a limited time, do just that.
On Democratic Backsliding
Old-fashioned military coups and blatant election-day fraud are becoming mercifully rarer these days, but other, subtler forms of democratic regression are a growing problem that demands more attention.
Nancy Bermeo

Why Elected Leaders Subvert Democracy
Today, the principal challenge to democracy is coming not from coups but from democratic erosion driven by elected leaders. What is behind this shift, and how can prodemocracy forces push back?
Susan Stokes

The Anatomy of Democratic Backsliding
Can we recognize the symptoms of backsliding before it’s too late? Though the signals are sometimes faint, a new study of sixteen cases around the world reveals key dynamics common to all.
Stephan Haggard and Robert Kaufman
 
Misunderstanding Democratic Backsliding
If democracies did a better job “delivering” for their citizens, so the thinking goes, people would not be so ready to embrace antidemocratic alternatives. Not so. This conventional wisdom about democratic backsliding is seldom true and often not accurate at all.
Thomas Carothers and Brendan Hartnett

Delivering for Democracy: Why Results Matter
Voters around the world are losing faith in democracy’s ability to deliver and increasingly turning toward more authoritarian alternatives. To restore citizens’ confidence, democracies must show they can make progress without sacrificing accountability.
Francis Fukuyama. Chris Dann, and Beatriz Magaloni 

Why Democracies Survive
Democracies are under stress, but they are not about to buckle. The erosion of norms and other woes do not spell democratic collapse. With incredibly few exceptions, affluent democracies will endure, no matter the schemes of would-be autocrats.
Jason Brownlee and Kenny Miao

The Danger Is Real
Analysis that subtly defines away problems is not going to help democracies survive the threats they now face. The fear is warranted.
Yascha Mounk

Questioning Backsliding
It is no easy feat to agree on how democratic backsliding should be measured. No surprise scholars are coming up with strikingly different results.
Nancy Bermeo

The Value of “Tyrannophobia”
Democratic death has been exaggerated. But fear that a democracy is going to break down may, ironically, be one of the things that protects it.
Tom Ginsburg

Follow the Leader
Democracies are increasingly under attack by the leaders they elect. We may not know the damage until it is too late.
Susan D. Hyde and Elizabeth N. Saunders

A Quiet Consensus
We welcome the common ground. The challenge ahead is to protect democracies genuinely in peril, while not losing valuable time and resources chasing authoritarian ghosts.
Jason Brownlee and Kenny Miao

The End of the Backsliding Paradigm
Like the “transition paradigm” before it, the concept of democratic backsliding threatens to flatten our perceptions of complex political realities. Examples from East-Central Europe illustrate the ambiguous dynamics at play in many troubled democracies.
Licia Cianetti and Seán Hanley 

How Much Democratic Backsliding?
Democracy’s retreat is real, yet alarmist reports of a global demise or crisis of democracy are not warranted.
Valeriya Mechkova, Anna Lührmann, and Staffan I. Lindberg