Donald Trump is one of many political leaders through history who has claimed he embodies the voice of ‘the people’ – but which people he means matters quite a lot.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Some fascists claim that democracy and fascism have the same goal – to give effect to the will of the people. But who the people are is where the ideologies divide.
President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses a parliamentary session.
GCIS/Flickr
Parliament’s failure to live up to its constitutional mandate was noted by the State Capture Commission as having enabled former president Zuma’s regime to corrupt state behaviour with ease.
Candidate signs during the first day of early primary voting on July 7, 2022, in Silver Spring, Md.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
There is more support for democracy among African people than is often recognised. Yet this can be undermined by election rigging and is lower in countries like Lesotho, Mozambique and South Africa.
People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) supporters at a campaign rally. The party has run the country since independence in 1975.
Photo by Osvaldo Silva / AFP) via Getty Images.
Angola needs a mixed electoral system. This would promote accountability through the direct election of representatives from constituencies.
The three branches of U.S. government often find themselves in tension.
White House, Eric Kiser; Capitol, John Xavier; Supreme Court, Architect of the Capitol
When presidents have tried to address pressing issues through executive action, members of Congress are quick to ask the courts to step in.
Marines at Camp Post, Afghanistan, Sept. 11, 2020, on the 19th anniversary of the terror attacks that began the U.S. war there.
Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images
Investigations of the 9/11 attacks show that a short, unstable transition between two presidents can weaken US security. Trump’s sweeping staff changes compound the risk, experts say.
Congress holds the power to propose and approve the federal budget.
Patsy Lynch/ MediaPunch /IPX
Zachary Price, University of California College of the Law, San Francisco
Even if other parts of the federal government shut down, Congress could – and would have to – keep working. A legal scholar explains why and how that is possible.
U.S. forces are still in Syria, but their role has changed substantially in recent weeks.
AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad
Since the 1940s, Congress has largely let the president make decisions, while members of the House and Senate endorse or condemn those actions from the sidelines.
Michael Cohen’s guilty plea has raised questions about the legitimacy of Trump’s presidency.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Chris Edelson, American University School of Public Affairs
Congress is supposed to be a check on presidential power, but party politics has muted Republican criticism of Trump. Restoring balance means making a radical change.
Trump with Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.
EPA/Jim Lo Scalzo
It’s quite possible that neither the US nor the UK will ever return to normal when it comes to political and constitutional balance.
The failure of senior ministers of government to observe basic protocols of respect for the Human Rights Commission and its president, Gillian Triggs, gives the nation a signal that the institutions of democracy are dispensable.
AAP/Lukas Coch
In his incautious remarks about the Australian Human Rights Commission’s (AHRC) report into children in detention, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has shown a disregard for basic institutions of democracy that…