NationStates Jolt Archive

for some reason im getting the same issues over and over again..
is this happening to other people?
for example, ive got the "should democracy be compulsory" issue on no less than 3 occasions over the past few months...

Yes this is quite common. Not all of the issues apply to all nations, for a start, so you won't be receiving all of the issues. Also what issues you receive is mostly down to chance, so there is always a possibility that you will receive the same issue a lot of times.

There is announcement in Got Issues? that covers this.