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Jan-Werner Mueller

Jan-Werner Mueller

63 commentaries

Jan-Werner Mueller, Professor of Politics at Princeton University, is the author, most recently, of Democracy Rules (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021; Allen Lane, 2021).

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  1. America’s Grotesquely Mediocre Emperor
    mueller58_Win McNameeGettyImages_trump_address_to_cognress Win McNamee/Getty Images

    America’s Grotesquely Mediocre Emperor

    Mar 6, 2025 Jan-Werner Mueller considers whether there is anything to lean from analogizing Donald Trump to Napoleon.

  2. Normalizing the Normalization of the Far Right
    mueller57_PoolGettyImages_alice_weidel Pool/Getty Images

    Normalizing the Normalization of the Far Right

    Feb 17, 2025 Jan-Werner Mueller explores the most common justifications that politicians offer for working with anti-democratic forces.

  3. Confronting the Pandemic’s Toxic Political Legacy
    mueller56_SOPA ImagesGettyImages_covid_prostest SOPA Images/Getty Images

    Confronting the Pandemic’s Toxic Political Legacy

    Jan 27, 2025 Jan-Werner Mueller supports calls for countries to carry out independent inquiries into how the COVID-19 crisis was handled.

  4. When the Left Goes Far Right
    mueller55_Maja HitijGetty Images_bsw Maja Hitij/Getty Images

    When the Left Goes Far Right

    Nov 4, 2024 Jan-Werner Mueller considers what drives some politicians to reverse their political allegiances.

  5. Populism’s Lost Summer
    mueller54_CHRISTIAN MONTERROSAAFP via Getty Images_trump CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA/AFP via Getty Images

    Populism’s Lost Summer

    Aug 16, 2024 Jan-Werner Mueller explains how to defeat far-right, anti-democratic parties in the public square and at the ballot box.

  1. blanchard17_Money SharmaGettyImages_von_der_leyen_modi Money Sharma/Getty Images
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    Maintaining Progress in a Post-American World

    Olivier Blanchard & Jean Pisani-Ferry identify four big global challenges that can still be tackled through “coalitions of the willing.”
  2. mueller58_Win McNameeGettyImages_trump_address_to_cognress Win McNamee/Getty Images
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    America’s Grotesquely Mediocre Emperor

    Jan-Werner Mueller

    Is Caesarism – a term invented in the nineteenth century to describe Napoleon’s particular form of rule – a good analogy for understanding Donald Trump and his political project? Despite some striking parallels, the illusion that America’s president has created lacks any basis in genuine achievements.

     considers whether there is anything to lean from analogizing Donald Trump to Napoleon.
  3. jheine3_ DANIEL SLIMAFP via Getty Images_OAS Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images
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    Trump and the Defense of Democracy in the Americas

    Jorge Heine attaches special importance to this month's Organization of American States leadership election.
  4. davies93_ Harold CunninghamGetty Images_BIS Harold Cunningham/Getty Images
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    Can Global Banking Rules Survive in a Fractured World?

    Howard Davies warns that changes in US foreign policy jeopardize efforts to create a common regulatory framework.
  5. varoufakis125_NICOLAS TUCATAFP via Getty Images_vonderleyen Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images
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    The Case Against European Rearmament

    Yanis Varoufakis

    If we truly want to strengthen Europe, the first step is not to rearm. It is to forge the democratic union without which stagnation will continue to erode Europe’s capacities, rendering it unable to rebuild what is left of Ukraine once Vladimir Putin is finished with it.

     argues that Europe's security depends above all on forging the democratic union that true strength requires.
  6. rogoff259_Kayla BartkowskiGettyImages_javier_milei Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
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    What Trump 2.0 Means for Africa and Latin America

    Kenneth Rogoff highlights the far-reaching implications of the new administration’s move to slash foreign-aid funding.
  7. madgavkar21_Picture AllianceGettyImages_demographic_crisis Picture Alliance/Getty Images
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    Emerging Economies Must Get Rich Before They Get Old

    Anu Madgavkar & Marc Canal Noguer recommend policies that would mitigate the impact of increased longevity and declining birth rates.
  8. coyle42_Andrew HarnikGetty Images_muskchainsaw Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
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    Musk and DOGE Are Doing It Wrong

    Diane Coyle highlights the fundamental flaw in the Trump administration’s push to cut red tape and curb wasteful spending.
  9. buruma224_WPA PoolGettyImages_europe_summit WPA Pool/Getty Images
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    Who Will Lead the Democratic World?

    Ian Buruma thinks the onus of defending our political freedoms will be on two countries that once tried to destroy them.

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