Higher-income Americans are much more likely to vote than the poor, which reduces political parties’ incentive to tackle inequality.
EPA/Michael Reynolds
Recent weeks have been all about elections and broken promises: from early April to mid-May, half-a-billion Indians went to the polls in what many described an astonishing display of democratic prowess…
Not all Thais have reacted with anger and dismay to the military takeover of their country. In fact, for those on the anti-government side, these are welcome developments. But that is no reason not to…
For more than 80 years, Thailand has been struggling to build a stable and functioning democracy. On the afternoon of Thursday May 22, that process was set back again with the country’s 12th military coup…
Human rights monitoring can now be done by anyone.
Allyson Neville-Morgan
In November 2013, the New Yorker published a profile of Eliot Higgins – or Brown Moses as he is known to almost 17,000 Twitter followers. An unemployed finance and admin worker at the time, Higgins was…
Craig Berry, University of Sheffield and Richard Berry, London School of Economics and Political Science
It has become a truism in the UK that government policy favours older generations because they vote in much larger numbers than young people. This assumption was central to the recent recommendation made…
One political scientist recently claimed that the evidence isn’t strong enough for lowering the voting age in Australia to 16. What are the arguments to the contrary?
AAP/Lukas Coch
Richard Berry, London School of Economics and Political Science
Pressure is building in democracies around the world to lower the voting age to 16. For national elections, Brazil (in 1988), Austria (2007) and Argentina (2012) have led the way. For local elections…
Saad Jawad, London School of Economics and Political Science
On May 10, less than a fortnight after Iraqis voted in their third national election since the downfall of Saddam Hussein, a series of bombings killed 14 people in a single day – an everyday occurrence…
NSW premier Barry O'Farrell felt obliged to resign as a result of ICAC revelations when it wasn’t clear to all that he should.
Daniel Munoz/AAP
“Monitory democracy” refers to the extra-parliamentary, para-legal, post-bureaucratic institutions of scrutiny that emerged as recently as the 1970s in Australia. Their evolution has swept us along in…
Politicians mustn’t turn their backs on young people.
Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
Matt Henn, Nottingham Trent University and Nick Foard, Nottingham Trent University
Young people’s relationship with politics in Britain is often considered to be both complex and problematic. On the one hand, this generation is often characterised as apathetic, with no interest in, or…
In a continuing dispute over the annulled 2013 election, the voters of the Maldives are demanding to be heard.
Dying Regime
Is it possible to opine about “the state of democracy in Asia”? Although some studies credibly do so, such a task seems challenging to say the least. This is due to the region’s proverbial diversity. And…
Zimbabweans wait to vote in last year’s referendum that approved a new constitution providing for gender equality in political representation.
EPA/Aaron Ufumeli
Democracy in Zimbabwe is a troubled creature. Yet Zimbabwean women are leading the way with a democratic agenda that offers inspiration, instruction and, indeed, a critique for Australian democracy. Oxfam’s…
Hands up if you’re on Twitter.
EPA/Al-Masry Al-Youm
In the age of information, we no longer need to leave the house to shape democracy. We’re heading towards a world in which the traditional sites of protest are sitting alongside online forums, which are…
Crimean referendum campaign posters in Sevastopol.
EPA/Zurab Kurtsikidze
The Crimean crisis is sliding from bad to worse, not least for the inhabitants of what until a month ago was an idyllic peninsula waiting for the glory of springtime. As the ultra-right and neo-Nazi thuggery…
While protesters still turned out in smaller numbers in Bangkok on Thursday, they have clearly failed in their key goal of stopping the election.
EPA/Nyein Chan Naing
In early November, the Pheu Thai government rammed through amnesty legislation that included last-minute changes to enable former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to return to Thailand without fear of…
Xu Zhiyong, jailed for four years. for inciting public disorder.
Wikimedia Commons
In the past decade, US and UK universities have embarked on a program of developing formal relationships, exchanges, and partnerships with their counterparts in China. No scholar interested in promoting…
Clint Eastwood and his empty chair don’t let facts get in the way of a good narrative.
Lynne Sladky/AP/Press Association Images
Human beings have long been easily influenced by the opinions of others but the social media networks that have come to dominate our lives may be making this “social proof” a problem. A recent study in…
Digital democracy gives you the tools to create the society you want to live in.
Dominic's pics
True democracy is not just about casting a vote every five years. It means citizens being fully involved in the proposal, development and creation of laws. The Commission on Digital Democracy currently…
Surly: Zuma’s presidency has been marked by scandal and mismanagement.
WEF
South Africa is mourning the death of Nelson Mandela, a founding father like no other. His legacy includes a still-lauded constitution, four peaceful, free and fair democratic elections (five if 2014 follows…
‘I don’t want our people to be crouched and crushed and flattened,’ said Aung San Suu Kyi in her address at the Sydney Opera House today.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was today awarded an honorary doctorate from UTS and the University of Sydney, in her first official visit to Australia. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who…
Silvio Berlusconi’s grip on power in Italy - albeit a hold that is slipping - has relied heavily on using his own media empire to exploit the political system.
EPA/Angela Carconi
While Australians face the possibility of the first-ever Senate by-election, as well as stormy sittings of a new parliament wrangling over the pro and cons of scrapping a carbon tax, 16,000 kilometres…