There is a danger that internal power struggles may cause distractions and derail the project of reformation.

Advances for minority rights in Taiwan may help make the case for independence at a time when China has increased pressure for reunification and faces protests in Hong Kong.

Convivial meeting places that cultivate a sense of purpose and belonging are a key to happiness among the rapidly growing cohort of elderly people in Japan.

The strategies Kabila adopted to avoid stepping down at the end of his term in December 2016 inadvertently consolidated this new democratic wave.

The increasing vibrancy of civil society had become a serious political threat to the authorities.

The revolution … ended the hopelessness, apathy, and indifference that had come to characterize the post-Soviet period.

Did the same pro-market economic policies that gave rise to the Arab Spring also doom the would-be revolutionaries by sapping their capacity for envisioning radical alternatives?

Civil society groups have helped meet social needs left unaddressed by the official response to the 2011 triple disaster. Their influence may be changing traditional patterns of rural neglect.

[L]ocal people acting within civil society groups are responding to violent religious extremism in unprecedented ways.

[T]he privatization of the economy, technical innovations on the Internet, and the sinophone sphere of debate have combined to create new spaces for informed discussion of topics that are officially banned …

The unexpected ouster of an authoritarian president in January's election was the result of a slow-burning citizens' uprising. Will this revival of civil society lead to lasting progress?

A new volume of essays edited by Wendy Doniger and Martha C. Nussbaum examines the Hindu right's influence throughout Indian society—a trend perhaps abetted by liberal taboos.

[T]he ceaseless undocumented migration from Central America can be traced back to institutional failures that have blocked the development of peaceful societies under the democratic rule of law. …

Contrary to conventional predictions, the growth of protest and civil society in contemporary China seems more conducive to the resilience of authoritarianism than to imminent democratization.

As more women get educated and move to the cities, they become the face of a society in transition. Tragically, they also become targets in the conflict that accompanies this transition.

The rise of digital networks is diffusing power to new players. Fourth in a series on soft power.

“The youth revolts … have shown that while regimes might be able to play the Islamic radicalism and sectarianism cards to bolster their hold on power in the short term, this is a failing strategy in the long run.” Third in a series on soft power around the world.

Most analysts on the continent do not share donor nations' optimism that a big push in aid will make a big difference in the lives of poor Africans.

The 1990s saw a great deal of positive political change in Kenya—most notably, relative freedom of speech and organization, [and] regular multiparty elections. … But almost counterintuitively, the regime has shrunk into something of a corrupt and hollow shell. … As the 2002 election begins to loom, echoes of the repression of the one-party era have begun to be felt.

Hugo Chávez has taken on the mantle of the people's will. He has also taken on an ever-larger share of political power and shown an increasing interest in spreading his “Bolivarian revolution” to the downtrodden in nearby Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia.