This is an anthology of articles from The Journal of Democracy, a quarterly sponsored by the quasi-official National Endowment for Democracy. For those unfamiliar with it, the Journal of Democracy since its founding four years ago has published some of the best contemporary writing on the subject of modern liberal democracy. Foreign Affairs A useful compilation popularizing the work of an influential journal... The Journal of Democracy is an effective tribune for mainstream U.S. thinking on these issues. Political Studies

Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, where he also directs the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Marc F. Plattner is vice president for research and studies at the National Endowment for Democracy, where he directs the International Forum for Democratic Studies. They serve as coeditors of the Journal of Democracy.