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Comparisons are made between Czechoslovakian president Thomas Garrigue Masaryk and Czech Republic president Vaclav Havel. Masaryk was beloved by his people and other Europeans for his strong democratic principles which were publicized by his friend, playwright Karel Capek. Havel, the first president of Czechoslovakia after the fall of communist rule, was also a playwright.

The current crisis of modern representative democracy and how associationalism might contribute to its resolution is examined. It is held that democracy can be renewed, on two conditions, which again is neither easy nor are associational solutions easy to implement or without risks.

A strong case for the negative impact of political journalism in two respects is presented. It is held that there is a link between the growing culture of cynicism in political reporting and the declining levels of political trust and engagement among voters - the same was reinforced by a study of the impact of negative campaign commercials established some years ago.

Relationship between media and democracy in Argentina is examined. Key arguments indicate restriction on discussion of human rights issues and limit the re-creation of a severely damaged public sphere.

Despite considerable normative support, analysts have failed to identify any systematic effects of democracy on domestic policy outputs. Building on a theory of the state as a monopoly producer of public services and establishing a common foundation for studying variations in regimes and their policy consequences, the authors hypothesize that democratic states will earn fewer monopoly rents and produce a higher level of services than autocracies. They test this hypothesis both cross-sectionally and over time for a variety of public health and education indicators. The statistical results strongly support their hypotheses. The authors conclude that democracy has real, substantively important effects on the daily lives and well-being of individuals around the globe.

An American political scientist investigates whether, and how, the political and economic values of ordinary Russians have changed. The study is based on a three-wave panel survey of a representative national sample of Russians, conducted between 1996 and 2000. The article considers the degree to which democratic commitments have solidified over the last half of the decade. The article also tests the conventional wisdom that democratic values are dependent upon perceptions of a successful economy.

This paper examines the relationship between democracy, human rights, and peace through the concept of a law of peoples developed recently by John Rawls. By means of the law of [...]

The most important issue relating to the extension of democracy into civil society, with reference to John Ehrenberg's article of 'Civil Society and Marxist Politics', is discussed. The issue of civil society instead of being abolished as an aspect of bourgeois class-rule, is emerging as an aspect of classless and state-less society.

The future of local government finance dominated the recent council elections. School governing bodies, foundation hospitals and registered social landlords are perhaps the shape of local democracy to come.