New Journal of Democracy features Ivan Krastev on the European Union and Larry Diamond on "The Opening in Burma"

October issue also features articles on the Arab world, media and democracy

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In the new issue of the Journal of Democracy (JoD), Ivan Krastev, a founding board member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, writes, "The risk that the EU will disintegrate is more than a scare story that politicians are using to force austerity measures on unhappy voters. It is a clear and present danger."

His article "A Fraying Union" is one of the seven-essay set "European Disintegration?" Other contributors comprise eminent scholars from the United States and Europe, including Philippe C. Schmitter, Joao Carlos Espada, Loukas Tsoukalis, and Jan Zielonka, as well as Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, a member of the European Parliament. 

The October issue also features a group of articles on "The Opening in Burma." In "The Democrats' Opportunity," Min Zin and Brian Joseph analyze the recent political developments in the longtime military dictatorship and present the challenges that democracy still faces, while Mary Callahan offers insight into the motivations of Burma's opaque military. Larry Diamond writes about the need for a political pact, concluding with cautious optimism that "people do make history, and this great drama is now in the hands of Burma's regime and opposition leaders." The cluster is rounded out by contributions from Min Ko Naing and Hkun Htun Oo, two key Burmese activists who were recently awarded the National Endowment for Democracy's top honor.

Elsewhere in this issue, JoD coeditor Marc Plattner ponders the implications for democracy of the decline of newspapers and the rise of new media in "Media and Democracy: The Long View;" Sean L. Yom and F. Gregory Gause III ask why Arab royals have been able to resist the tide of protest in a region awash in political upheaval; and Mark Tessler and his coauthors present new findings on Arab views of democracy. To see the complete table of contents, please visit the JoD's website.

The Journal of Democracy is published quarterly in January, April, July, and October. To subscribe, go to www.press.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/order.cgi?oc_id=32. For more information, please visit us online at www.journalofdemocracy.org or send an e-mail to [email protected].

SOURCE National Endowment for Democracy