AUTHOR'S BIO
Alfred Stepan
Alfred Stepan is Professor of Government and Director of the Center for Democracy, Toleration, and Religion at Columbia University.
| RECENT COMMENTARIES | FEATURED COMMENTARIES | MOST READ COMMENTARIES |
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Democracy’s Dawn in Tunisia and Egypt?
Alfred Stepan Series: Islam 2011-05-12With protests fading in Cairo and Tunis, it is time to ask whether Tunisia and Egypt will complete democratic transitions. A successful transition in either country (or elsewhere in the region) would be of immense importance for the Arab world, which currently includes no democracies at all.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 6899
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Does Egypt Need a Pharaoh?
Alfred Stepan and Juan Linz Series: The World in Words 2011-02-07
As Egypt’s revolution hangs in the balance, what factors are most likely to determine the outcome? While all eyes seem to be focused on the army, watching to see which way it will jump, other key questions are being overlooked.... read Comments: 1 Recommended: 1 Read: 17965
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Indonesia’s Democratic Islam
Alfred Stepan and Jeremy Menchik Series: Islam 2010-11-06Indonesia, with its firmly consolidated democracy, powerful women's-rights organizations, and embrace of pluralism, is often viewed as a model for the rest of the Muslim world. But what lessons are to be learned from Indonesian democracy?... read Comments: 2 Recommended: 1 Read: 17631
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Turkey’s Secular Fundamentalist Threat
Alfred Stepan Series: Islam 2008-03-20The Chief Prosecutor of Turkey’s High Court of Appeals recently recommended to the country’s Constitutional Court that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) be permanently banned for eroding Turkish secularism. But the prosecutor's demand merely underscores the authoritarian roots of Turkey's existing constitution.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 23344
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Senegal’s Democracy Put to the Test
Alfred Stepan Series: Into Africa 2007-02-16Senegal, a country whose population is 90% Muslim, is one of the Islamic world’s most peaceful and democratic countries. This tranquility has been helped by the elaborate “rituals of respect” that have developed between the secular state and the Sufi orders, and the excellent relations between the country’s Muslim majority and the Catholic minority at all levels of society. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 17801
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Moving Beyond Mexico’s Crisis
Alfred Stepan Series: Latin America 2006-08-23As the crisis over Mexico’s disputed presidential election continues, questions are being raised not only about the conduct of the seemingly defeated candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but also about Mexico’s presidential system. Is “presidentialism” as practiced in Mexico part of the problem? ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 13739
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Why is France Burning?
Alfred Stepan and Ezra Suleiman Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2005-11-14The urban disturbances in France have been called the most severe since the riots by students and workers in 1968. The analogy is misleading. While the 1968 protests challenged the French Republican model to live up to its finest aspirations, today’s crisis challenges the French Revolution’s model of citizenship and integration itself.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 33054
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The Arab World’s Democratic Opening
Alfred Stepan Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2005-04-14Roughly 400 million Muslims currently live in non-Arab Muslim majority states – including Turkey, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Senegal, Mali, and Albania – that have held relatively free elections for their highest political offices. These countries may not yet be full democracies, but, because they hold competitive elections, they have met a necessary condition for being a democracy. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 25458
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Can Democracy Take Hold in Ukraine?
Alfred Stepan Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2004-12-27Certainly, the diversity of forms of governance used over the centuries by Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and Austria-Hungary when they ruled what is now Ukraine make creating a classic "nation state," with one dominant culture, difficult to imagine. Consider, for example, the robustness of the Russian language and the strength of the Orthodox Church- Moscow Patriarchate - in Donetsk that is in eastern Ukraine and the robustness of the Ukrainian language and the influence of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Lviv in the west. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 22445
| Islam's Electoral Divide | Alfred Stepan 
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