For Jan-werner Mueller's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Liberals around the world are daring to hope that there is a silver lining to the violent denouement of Donald Trump’s presidency: namely, that the inciter-in-chief’s ignominious exit from the political stage will chasten authoritarian populists elsewhere. Unfortunately, their optimism is naive. Contrary to the ...
The violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, incited by Trump, represents something new and profane in American history.
Historically, plenty of other countries’ transitions from authoritarianism have been characterized by a willingness to leave former power-holders unpunished.
There's a paucity of accurate, practical community-level information about the pandemic.
The choices made by established conservative elites, as much as the challenges posed by insurgent outsiders, determine the fate of democracy.
Instead of describing Europe's new authoritarian leaders as "illiberal" we should be calling them what they really are: "undemocratic."
The Greek government's crackdown on the country's far-right Golden Dawn party revives the vexing question of whether we should outlaw the more hateful, extremist political parties.
Nicolas Maduro's narrow win in Venezuela's presidential election raises an important question: Can populism thrive without a popular, charismatic leader?
The protest movements that have flared up across the West, from Chile to Germany, have remained curiously undefined and under-analyzed. Some speak of them as the greatest global mobilization since 1968 — when enragés in very different countries coalesced around similar concerns. But others ...
PRINCETON, N.J. — Can citizenship really be tested? An increasing number of countries — especially, but not only, in Europe — seem to think so. Over the last decade, tests and exams for immigrants have proliferated — but so have controversies about what they may ...
