In a major piece for Mother Jones magazine on “Why Ballot Measures Are Democracy’s Last Line of Defense,” voting rights correspondent Ari Berman discusses abortion ballot measures in 10 states, important down-ballot races in Wisconsin and elsewhere, and the movement to abolish or reform the Electoral College.

(I’ll be adding this to my socialism FAQ, but for now I think it deserves it’s own post.) The logic here is what fascinates—the mechanical formality, starting with rigid definitions and proceeding step by careful step to absurdity. The old scholastics of the middle ages would certainly have approved, but if we don’t want to … Continue reading “We live in a democracy, therefore the government represents us.”

America has not been attacked like this since 9/11. Six unelected people forcing their christian nationalist agenda on a population of three hundred and forty million is not a Democracy. It is tyranny.

As authoritarian regimes in China and Russia continue to make gains, President Biden faces a challenge of reigniting global democracy at his Summit for Democracy. WSJ’s Gerald F. Seib explains how Biden will navigate these challenges at the virtual summit. Photo Illustration: Elise Dean

President Biden and congressional lawmakers on Thursday remembered the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot with a series of speeches and a candlelight vigil. WSJ’s Sadie Gurman explains how the day unfolded in Washington, D.C. Photo: Tom Brenner/Reuters

New York : Central European University Press, 2023.

Manchester : Manchester University Press, [2019]

Manchester : Manchester University Press, [2017]

Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, [2023]

Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2024.

Manchester : Manchester University Press, [2018]

'Pod Save America' hosts Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor join WIRED to answer your burning questions about American democracy and elections. Does the United States have honest elections? Could we have a 51st state by the time we have our 51st president? What's Project 2025 and why are we hearing more about it? Are technology and social media undermining democracy? How can a presidential candidate win the popular vote but still lose the presidency? Jon and Tommy answer these questions and many more on Democracy Support.Democracy or Else: How To Save America In 10 Easy Steps is available now: https://crooked.com/crookedmediareads/Check out Pod Save America at:http://apple.co/podsaveamericahttps://www.youtube.com/@podsaveamericaDirector: Lisandro Perez-ReyDirector of Photography: Ben DeweyEditor: Richard TrammellTalent: Jon Favreau; Tommy VietorLine Producer: Joseph BuscemiAssociate Producer: Brandon WhiteProduction Manager: Peter BrunetteProduction Coordinator: Rhyan LarkTalent Booker: Paige GarbariniCamera Operator: Caleb WeissSound Mixer: Sean PaulsenProduction Assistant: Cerina ShippeyPost Production Supervisor: Christian OlguinPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Doug LarsenAdditional Editor: JC Scruggs; Paul TaelAssistant Editor: Andy Morell

Image by J. F. Horrabin, via Wikimedia Commons Bertrand Russell saw the history of civilization as being shaped by an unfortunate oscillation between two opposing evils: tyranny and anarchy, each of which contains the seed of the other. The best course for steering clear of either one, Russell maintained, is liberalism. “The doctrine of liberalism […]

The attack on Salwa Judum founder, Mahendra Karma, was only a question of when and not if.

The anti-defection law has played a crucial role in political stability, but there are gaps which need to be addressed to make it more effective and impartial

Cybersecurity researchers have outlined cases where Thai activists involved in the country’s pro-democracy protests had their devices attacked with spyware

Journalist Tim Schwab says his book probing the Gates Foundation is a case study for the larger problem of extreme wealth and how it threatens democracy

I have sworn an oath on the Constitution to serve the people and fulfil my promises, says the Delhi Chief Minister, asserting that the Constitution and legal framework put no bar on him continuing in his post

The ‘high command’ culture must give way to intra-party democracy.

Elections can only be representative if all members of society, including women, play a role, the head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan said Wednesday.

Openness is one of the key values that guide the OECD vision for a stronger, cleaner, fairer world. This is why the OECD welcomes the launch of the Open Government Partnership today and the efforts led by Presidents Obama and Rousseff to promote government transparency, fight corruption, empower citizens and maximise the potential of new technologies to strengthen accountability and foster participation in public affairs.

OECD Forum on Financing Democracy and Averting Policy Capture

Elected rulers use heavy-handed authority to prevent being toppled by swings in opinion

Over the next two decades, Indians are going to see an enormous challenge to the value systems of the past, being replaced by the new value systems of globalisation says Ramesh Ramanathan.

The most flexible information dissemination medium ever invented can still be used for the betterment of all, says Subramaniam Vincent.

For the sake of millions of voiceless women and marginalised groups, who were given a voice through the 73rd Constitutional Amendment, it is important to challenge laws that attempt to take away grassroots participatory democracy as it has begun to evolve, writes Kalpana Sharma.

The relationship between the two major parties in Parliament has broken down completely. For this both parties are responsible, writes Ramachandra Guha.

A multitude of grassroots movements are emerging across the country in resistance to the mainstream economy and polity. These initiatives are exploring sustainable, equitable and  just paths to human well-being. Ashish Kothari and Pallav Das offer an insight into the need for such movements.

A prerequisite of democracy is the democratization of communication, which in turn requires the empowerment of individuals.

Environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr. is fighting with community activists to save West Virginia's Coal River Mountain from the hands of major coal corporations t

The Robert R. McCormick Foundation and the Executive Service Corps of Chicago (ESC) announce the inaugural Leadership in Democracy cohort

Rebecca Henderson, professor at Harvard Business School, says that both capitalism and democracy are failing us. She argues that it will take public and private leaders working together to simultaneously fix these two systems because free markets don't function well without free politics and healthy government needs corporate support to survive. She is calling on the business community to take the first step. Henderson is the author of the upcoming book "Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire." And the March Big Idea article, "The Business Case for Saving Democracy."

It is interesting that the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, summons the very real fact his nation invented democracy to bolster his government’s argument for a favourable solution to the debt crisis wracking its citizens.

The sudden shutdown of all channels of Greece's national broadcasting company by the Greek government is 'unacceptable for an EU democracy', says West Mids and Warks Lib Dem MEP Phil Bennion.

In the nineteen-thirties, authoritarian regimes were on the rise around the world—as they are again today—and democratic governments that came into existence after the First World War were toppling. “American democracy, too, staggered,” Jill Lepore wrote in The New Yorker, “weakened by corruption, monopoly, apathy, inequality, political violence, hucksterism, racial injustice, unemployment, even starvation.” Lepore talks with David Remnick about how Americans rallied to save democracy, and how we might apply those lessons in a new era with similar problems. 

“Our enemy is apathy.” –Yanis Varoufakis In 2015 today’s guests were propelled onto the global stage by their efforts to take on the European banking establishment and restructure the Greek government’s financial system.  For 5 months they worked to negotiate alternatives to further austerity measures; trying to extend loans while moving Greece toward a more solvent state.  Their efforts to confront the Eurozone and proceed democratically to carry...

Blockchain is a much-hyped technology that underpins the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.  Enthusiasts believe its potential to transform other areas of business is huge. But what if Blockchain is really just a solution in search of a problem? Also in this episode: are businesses becoming political advocates? And why are we seeing a return from algorithmic to human curation?

Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer says the three-week early voting period is bad for democracy, particularly in regional Australia.

As state officials close countless public gathering places to slow the spread of the coronavirus, cities and towns across Colorado are leveraging the latest technology to continue doing the people's business -- though the efforts at virtual democracy haven't come without fits and starts. Municipalities across Colorado have long broadcast or live-streamed public meetings on the web or on a local cable channel, but recent unprecedented crowd control measures prompted by the pandemic have forced local officials to scramble to keep city and county agendas intact while not violating the requirements of the state's open meetings laws.

Cornel West and Tavis Smiley criticize President Barack Obama for being to the right of even President Richard Nixon. Continue reading →

"This is supposed to be a political party. In a healthy society, there would be a democratic process in the Democratic Party, by which elected people would be overseeing these issues by making sure there wasn’t just nepotism and insider dealing," Curry says. "That the political party itself — which is supposed to be the progressive party — has become mortgaged to a small group of Washington insiders, who raise money from large corporate PACs, [and] has become just a dead carcass of what it once was, is the most important piece of information that this contretemps over the data files has emphasized. It’s time for progressives in this country to stand up and demand a genuinely democratic process." Continue reading →