NINETEEN-EIGHTY-NINE IS often celebrated as the year in which capitalist democracy triumphed over the tyranny of Eastern and Central European communism. But, argues Mitchell Cohen, "The events of 1989...did not come about because flowering liberalism triumphed over monolithic totalitarianism, [but because] Bolshevism was unsalvageable." (Photo: Department of Defense / Wikimedia)

WITH 37 million people living below the poverty line and over 30 million now unemployed, American politicians need to rethink welfare policy. "We need to ask why there is such a huge gap between top and bottom in this wealthy country and why there are so many people at the bottom," writes Peter Edelman. (Photo: Andrew Brown/Creative Commons 2.0)

GENERAL STANLEY McChrystal hopes to win the war in Afghanistan by helping rebuild the country's civil society. But, writes Jim Sleeper, "if it's anything like [its] publicity...it has the possibility of resurrecting a set of policies that failed not only in Vietnam but also in LBJ's 'War on Poverty.'" (Photo: Pete Souza / White House)

THIRTY-FIVE YEARS have passed since Roe v. Wade, and the country is still deeply divided over abortion rights. "The post-Tiller era," write Carole Joffe and Tracy Weitz, "is not unlike the situation of the pre-Roe v. Wade era when the availability of a late abortion depends heavily on...a sympathetic physician or [the] resources to travel elsewhere." (Photo: TWP / Wikimedia / Creative Commons 3.0)

NINETEEN-EIGHTY-NINE was a year of historic possibility. Twenty years later, Shlomo Avineri, Paul Berman, Norman Geras, Keith Gessen, Charles S. Maier, Anna Seleny, Vladimir Tismaneanu, Jeffrey Wasserstrom, and Guobin Yang contemplate the political transformation of Eastern Europe, Russia, and China.

TO THE vexation of Norman Podhoretz, American Jews have remained committed to liberalism "long past the point where it has served either their interests or their ideals." But, argues Michael Walzer, "if we defend only Jewish interests and not Jewish values [such as solidarity and equality], then we have lost too much." (Photo: (Zen / Flickr / Creative Commons)

AMIDST THE patchwork freedoms of the 1980s, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya emerged as a playwright and memoirist known for her bracing depictions of life in the Soviet Union. But having relinquished her realist plays for a set of dark fairy tales, her vision, argues Ingrid Norton, still reverberates with "the tangible-and utterly realistic-difficulties of [Russian society]." (Photo: Anastasia Kazakov)

OVER THE past nine months, Obama has had to walk a tightrope to maintain his promise of post-partisan politics. But, argues Nancy Rosenblum, "the threat to democratic politics is not partisanship, but the faux luster of independence. [The] danger is the widespread conviction that we would be better off without parties altogether." (Photo: Pete Souza / White House)

WITH KARZAI'S presidency in the balance and with top U.S. commanders clamoring for a troop increase, Obama must now decide whether he is committed to staying in Afghanistan for the long run. "The United States is stuck in a Catch-22," writes Todd Gitlin. "The generals want a counterinsurgency campaign, but the Afghans don't trust American troops." (Photo: Philippe E. Chasse / U.S. Marines)

NORMALLY, CRITICS would be lambasting a Ken Burns's documentary for its middlebrow sensibilities. But in today's overheated climate, writes Kevin Mattson, "what better statement about right-wing lunacy is there than the accusation that Ken Burns [is] a socialist?" (Photo: Library of Congress)

OVER THE past decade, the Internet has played a crucial role in the promotion of democracy. But, writes Evgeny Morozov, it has also brought into play "a host of decentralized, uncontrollable, and ultimately more dangerous elements." (A visualization of the Internet / Matt Brint / Creative Commons)

THE RISE of Silvio Berlusconi--Italy's antic, three-time prime minister--was not achieved by means of wealth, corruption, or willpower alone. Rather, writes Yascha Mounk, "Berlusconi's ascendancy is owed not only to the shambolic state of the Italian left," but also, in part, to "the toothless political program of the European left." (Berlusconi in 2007 / Jollyroger / Creative Commons 2.5)

FUNDAMENTALISM HAS become a growing source of insecurity for Pakistan. But, writes Ali Eteraz, "the real issue is not that from time to time a group of militants, while demanding the implementation of sharia, begin attacking civilians"--it is the 1973 Islamization of Pakistan's constitution. (Photo: Farazilu/Creative Commons)

WERNER SOMBART'S hundred-year-old question about American politics--why does America not have a socialist movement?--has not only faded in the last couple of decades; it has been inverted. The question for contemporary historians, writes Michael Kimmage, is why does America have so much capitalism? (Reagan in a 1981 televised address / White House / Wikimedia)

KURDISTAN HAS been one of the most impoverished and thoroughly violated places in the Islamic world, reports Tim Goot-Brennan. But while much of Iraq is still riven by sectarian violence, "the Kurds have transformed northern Iraq from the grimmest part of the Middle East into a relatively free and functional society." (Outside Iraqi Kurdistan's parliament / Tim Goot-Brennan)

ANDREAS KALYVAS and Ira Katznelson's Liberal Beginnings captures not only the story of liberalism's emergence from republicanism but, writes Geoffrey Kurtz, also provides "a model for understanding how social democracy [developed] from liberalism." (Adam Smith and Eduard Bernstein)

THE TEHRAN show trials are nothing new for the Islamic Republic of Iran, argues Ladan Boroumand. "Instead, [they] flow directly from the very nature of the Islamic regime and its inherent hostility to liberal-democratic nations." Adds Ramin Jahanbegloo, the recent trials are "a reminder of the Moscow show trials of 1936-38." (Ahmedinajad on May 9, 2009 / Kamyar Adl / Creative Commons 2.0)

THE ELECTION of Barack Obama opens the door for renewed peace negotiations in the Mideast. But "high diplomacy without grassroots diplomacy [has] failed," write J. Craig Jenkins and Thomas Maher, and "a popular referendum in both Israel and the Palestinian territories over the legitimacy of negotiations...would prepare [for the] significant concessions." (Photo: Vince Musi/The White House)

TO MANY, last month's electoral coup irrevocably damaged the institutions of Iran's Islamic Republic. But, writes Daniel Brumberg,"for the foreseeable future the best option for Iran's opposition...may be to focus their energies on reviving and reshaping those elected institutions that have the means (and constitutional duty) to speak on behalf of the populace." (Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei / Wikimedia Commons)

THE SUPREME Court's decision in Ricci v. DeStefano will have a significant impact on employment discrimination law. But, writes Mark Tushnet, it also reveals "the strategy of Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative colleagues for achieving their long-run goals." (The U.S. Supreme Court Building: Wadester16 / Creative Commons)