Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi recently won a sham election in which potential challengers were pushed aside. Photo: Islam Safwat/NurPhoto via Getty Images
"Some say that global democracy is experiencing its worst setback since the 1930s and that it will continue to retreat unless rich countries find ways to reduce inequality and manage the information revolution," Foreign Affairs editor Gideon Rose writes in his introduction to the new issue.
The state of play: "Those are the optimists. Pessimists fear the game is already over, that democratic dominance has ended for good ... As a Latin American friend put it ruefully, 'We’ve seen this movie before, just never in English.'"