When the 2011 Libyan civil war erupted, Twitter became a major instrument to air the rebels’ account of the conflict and present themselves internationally as a viable alternative to Moammar Gadhafi.
Regaining public trust in government starts with steps like capping political donations and establishing a federal anti-corruption body.
Lukas Coch/AAP
With public trust in government at an all-time low, it’s time we prioritised political reform and put in place a comprehensive roadmap for effective, long-term change.
A civil guard informs people of an ongoing raid as part of a corruption probe in Torrejon de Ardoz near Madrid, Spain.
REUTERS/Andrea Comas
Can Spain learn from a decade marked by high-profile political corruption scandals involving money embezzled from regional governments and mismanagement in urban planning and construction?
Choosing Cairns or Townsville as a northern Queensland capital would set off a political storm, as would new regional governments around Australia.
Dan Peled/AAP
Federal politicians and the public like the idea of abolishing the states. But consider the likely result: a more powerful Canberra, with regional governments amounting to glorified shire councils.
Sussan Ley is the latest federal MP to be embroiled in an expenses scandal.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
It would be short-sighted to believe that a more far-reaching transformation than a royal succession might not also be in store for the Kingdom of Thailand.
What would it take to get more Americans to buy into our democracy?
REUTERS/Jim Young
Ibrahim Oanda, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa
Africa’s universities supposedly became more independent after the early 1990s. But it appears they haven’t achieved much more than cosmetic autonomy from political interference.
When our political institutions are market-driven, they risk becoming a democratic shell that no longer serves the people, as the European Union experience is showing.
Theophilos Papadopoulos/flickr
Democracy’s problem is not the crisis but the triumph of capitalism. Democracy has become market-conforming, resulting in whole sections of society lacking meaningful representation.
Protesting students from the University of Zimbabwe take to the streets of Harare in 2001.
Howard Burditt/Reuters
In 1988 students from the University of Zimbabwe began demonstrating against government corruption. Their protests grew into a national movement that indelibly changed the country.
Malcolm Turnbull is promising a change in leadership style from Tony Abbott, but that alone won’t be enough to qualify as government for the 21st century.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The Abbott government resisted the disruptive changes of the 21st century. To succeed, the Turnbull government will need to shed this reactionary mindset and embrace inevitable change.
Joe Hockey has made no secret of his republican leanings, yet his right to seek to revive debate on the issue has been questioned.
Reuters/Jason Lee
It has significant public support across party lines, but politicians who advocate Australia becoming a republic are likely to have their priorities and even their right to do so questioned.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill are immortalised as political heroes, but both had personal issues that might have proved politically fatal today.
AAP/Diana Plater
Candidates from Spain’s ‘15M’ movement – born of mass protests in 2011 – have responded in various ways to the dilemma that being elected creates for those wishing to overturn the ‘old politics’.
The road to recovery is a long one for Nepal, which goes beyond the immediate priority of disaster relief.
Diego Azubel/AAP
Politics in Nepal will hinder relief and recovery efforts following the earthquake and its aftershocks. But look at it the other way around. Could the disaster help to resolve political problems?
At one climate change conference after another, leaders of the developed democracies solemnly pledge action, then return to the gridlock of political systems with 19th-century origins.
EPA/COP20
Even as the challenges of climate change grow ever more obvious, what remains largely unacknowledged is the crisis in liberal democratic politics that is preventing an effective response.
Plaid Cymru are seeking to rally powers to Wales.
Flashflash/Wikimedia Commons
Professor of Comparative Political Science and Democracy Research at the Humboldt University Berlin; Associate of the Sydney Democracy Network, University of Sydney; Director of Research Unit Democracy: Structures, Performance, Challenges, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.