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Develops a theoretical framework for assessing what type of democracy will best serve a nation, looks at democratic design in several focus cases, and draws lessons for policymakers from patterns of success and failure over the past 40 years

This article focuses on the link between the representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in national legislatures and the existence of equality laws focused on sexual orientation. It addresses three interrelated questions: how many "out" LGBT legislators have served in national parliaments, what explains the cross-national variation in their legislative presence, and what is the relationship between the presence of gay legislators and the enactment of laws that treat gay and straight citizens equally? There is an established literature arguing that the representation of women and ethnic minorities "descriptively" in national legislatures improves the realization of their policy preferences and the position of the group within the society as a whole. This article draws on that literature and extends the analysis to LGBT communities. It finds that the presence of even a small number of openly gay legislators is associated significantly with the future passage of enhanced gay rights, even after including controls for social values, democracy, government ideology, and electoral system design. Once openly gay legislators are in office they have a transformative effect on the views and voting behavior of their straight colleagues. This "familiarity through presence" effect is echoed in studies of U.S. state legislatures and levels of social tolerance of homosexuality in the population at large.

Abstract: On 18 September 2005, nearly six and a half million Afghans voted in the freest and most competitive legislative elections they had ever experienced. The election vividly demonstrated that vibrant and meaningful elections can be conducted even under the most unpromising circumstances. But the Afghan elections also showed that designing appropriate institutions tailored to the needs of an emerging democratic society remains the greatest challenge. The single nontransferable vote (SNTV) electoral system came about by a path of muddled missteps, and it was a disservice to the millions of Afghans who deserved a clear and transparent tool to craft their first democratic parliament.

One of the mysteries of Joseph Brodsky's biography was that, even as Petersburg continued to haunt many of Brodsky's writings of exile, the poet himself did not return to his native city after being exiled in 1972. In this article, Andrew Reynolds explores the notion of the "Petersburg text" as it applies to Brodsky's work and reveals Brodsky's deep ambivalence toward the kenoticism central to many readings of the "Petersburg text" and the "Russian idea" itself. The article argues that Brodsky's "last" poem, "August," is both an attempt to exorcise and, ultimately, an acceptance of the fatidic patterns which seem to make a "return to Petersburg" inevitable in art if not in life. The poem is both an elegy for a (still living?) tradition and a self-elegy, and represents Brodsky's final recognition that he is Aleksandr Pushkin's successor in more ways than one: the strongest Russian poets always die "in January," irrespective of which month or season becomes one's "fate."