North Carolina’s election districts have been under debate and review for years.
AP Photo/Gerry Broome
It’s official: State courts can review lawmakers’ election-district boundary decisions to ensure they comply with state law.
A man casts his vote at a polling station in Freetown during the 2018 general elections.
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Economic management, food shortages, health services, infrastructure and education are key issues that may shape how Sierra Leoneans vote on 24 June.
Ordinary Greeks wielded power via direct democracy.
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Those who seek power for the sake of power are less attracted to high office when more people get a say.
AI could help elected representatives raise up constituent voices.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Public comment could soon swamp government officials and representatives, thanks to AI, but AI could also help spot compelling stories from constituents.
Members of the feminist group Las Tesis participate in Chile’s national protest movement in Santiago, Chile, in December 2019.
Elvis Gonzales/EPA-EFE
People across Latin America are demanding greater political participation. Some countries, including Colombia and Chile, have responded by involving citizens in the making of their constitutions.
A judge bench and a jury box are seen in a U.S. courthouse in Cleveland, Ohio.
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Like all criminal defendants, Trump will enjoy the protection that a jury will offer from abuse by government prosecutors.
It’s not true that college students reject challenging ideas wholesale and oppose conservative views.
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The quality of public debate over free speech in higher education matters. And the debate right now gets the facts all wrong.
Activists call for ethics reform in the Supreme Court at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 2, 2023.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Courts have no army or police force to enforce their decisions. Their power rests on their legitimacy in the public eye. How does scandal affect that?
Former U.S. president Donald Trump gives thumbs up as he watches during the first round of the LIV Golf Tournament at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
It will take a lot of strategic ingenuity to fight the rise of populism. And it will get harder to do so as politicians rig the game with rules designed to reduce voting.
Hundreds of people stand in line to vote in South Africa’s first democratic election in April 1994.
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The proportional representation system has long outlived its relevance. Its negative extremes abound in local government.
Cheryl Axleby reads the Uluru Statement from the Heart outside South Australia’s Parliament in Adelaide on March 26, after SA becomes the first state to legislate for an Indigenous Voice.
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We need a richer account of democracy within which to locate the Voice, to lift the quality of public debate about it.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, left, meets with President Joe Biden to discuss the debt limit in the White House on May 22, 2023.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Brinkmanship means coming to the edge of potential default on the US debt ceiling. Are lawmakers negotiating the debt limit representing the wishes and interests of their voters?
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Stan Grant’s new book, The Queen is Dead, is revealing in terms of his decision to step down from public life. ‘I have been reminded what it is to come from the other side of history,’ he writes.
Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan celebrate.
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Turkish voters will be heading back to the polls on May 28 after no candidates managed to gain more than half the votes. But incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was boosted by a stronger-than-expected showing.
Under a portrait of Theodor Herzl, David Ben-Gurion on May 14, 1948, declares the establishment of a Jewish state to be known as the state of Israel.
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Israel may no longer be a fledgling state – but it has yet to overcome the basic contradiction that has defined it from the very beginning.
Democracy cannot survive without free media.
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Finding the right balance between media freedom and limits remains one of the greatest challenges modern democracies face.
Dividing land borders in Ghana is a contentious issue.
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Ghana’s regions have no autonomy, yet creating new ones is contentious as it threatens the interests of chiefs and political parties.
Enrique Tarrio, center, stands with other Proud Boys at a 2019 rally in Portland, Oregon.
AP Photo/Noah Berger
Who are the Proud Boys, what do they want and is there a path back into society for these extremists?
Demonstrators who support banning books gather during a protest outside of the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn, Mich., on Sept. 25, 2022.
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Free speech is under attack from both sides of the political spectrum.
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Why addressing inequality in ‘left-behind’ places requires more than ‘levelling up’.