Is American democracy an ‘experiment’ in the bubbling-beakers-in-a-laboratory sense of the word? If so, what is the experiment attempting to prove, and how will we know if and when it has succeeded?
Censure might occasionally be necessary to preserve the integrity of a parliament, but using it to punish members for their personal views threatens the foundations of democracy.
The ACT Party claims revisiting the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi is about political equality. But removing a Māori cultural dimension to New Zealand’s democracy would have an opposite effect.
Today, the government released a review into Australia’s patchwork of a secrecy law system. The proposed changes are a step in the right direction, but there’s so much more work to do.
The absence of a speaker of the House − a single individual but the linchpin in Congress − could produce a dangerous crisis in America’s constitutional democracy.
Ugly incidents in the run-up to the election mirror the rise of online violence against women in politics. The next government needs a plan to tackle the problem before it’s too late.
Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy, Associate Research Professor, Political Science, Co-host of Democracy Works Podcast, Penn State