The State of the Union address, a traditional exercise for US presidents was marked this year by a great divergence on tone and words, showing the clear dictatorial style of the American leader.
Protestors in front of the U.S. Capitol, May, 2017.
Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Jan Leighley, American University School of Public Affairs and Jennifer Oser, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Citizen activists can influence the policy positions of their elected representatives. Their activism might well counter the advantages of the wealthy in America.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Camille Bedock, Université de Bordeaux; James K. Wong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Patricia Roberts-Miller, The University of Texas at Austin; Sabeel Rahman, Brooklyn Law School; Sor-hoon Tan, National University of Singapore, and Xavier Marquez, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Uncertainty is built into democracy, but we are seeing more talk of crisis and more attempts at redefinition. So where does this leave citizens who want to have a meaningful say in how they live?
Emmeline, Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst: a family at war with itself.
Imperial War Museum/Wikipedia
Reforms to the judiciary are a threat to democracy – and that affects us all.
In clinging to power, Nicolás Maduro, Hugo Chávez’s handpicked successor, is steering Venezuela’s once-rich democracy to autocracy.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
Democracy takes many forms, some of them democracy in name only. Confusion and misappropriation complicate the public struggle for the democracy to come, but this challenge is always unending.
Emmerson Mnangagwa visits Jacob Zuma.
GovernmentZA via Flickr
Zimbabwe’s Emmerson Mnangagwa and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa need to sharpen their thinking and get to work.
Election workers count votes by the light of candles and a kerosene lamp at a polling station without electricity in the Yoff neighborhood of Dakar, Senegal in 2007.
(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Distributed-energy technologies are a disruptive force that can improve the quality of life for the world’s most disadvantaged and poor.
President of Ontario Federation of Labour Chris Buckley addresses protesters outside a Tim Hortons Franchise in Toronto last week.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Do businesses have to act like businesses? Or could we pay slightly more for goods, like coffee, and recognize that stability for working people is essential to a robust economy.
Demonstrations on the 7th anniversary of the toppling of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia.
Zoubeir Souissi/Reuters
The Venezuelan government has just announced that it will hold a presidential election by the end of April. Despite pervasive hunger and discontent, democracy still doesn’t stand a chance.
While some are declaring that democracy has had its day, others see this as a time to develop more truly democratic ways of living.
Gustav Klimt, Death and Life, 1910
Judges in North Carolina just threw out the state’s congressional district map. The decision could have major implications for the future of partisan gerrymandering across the US.
Africa needs average economic growth of over 7% for several decades if it’s to reduce poverty and increase income levels.
Shutterstock
Africa is still witnessing an increase in social turbulence, unrest and protest. Only rapid, inclusive economic growth combined with good governance can make the continent less volatile.