It’s a phrase often bandied around – but what does it mean? And how relevant is the notion of ‘the end of history’ today?
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on Political theory
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It’s the fairest way to settle this debate – though in the absence of a clear majority supporting either “remain” or a “no deal” it would probably mean accepting Theresa May’s deal.
It’s a slippery concept but academics have reached agreement on some of its fundamental elements.
Recent elections in Turkey, Hungary and Russia raise a fundamental question about democracy. Can it give autocracy a mandate?
Given that so many people have a strong opinion about identity politics, it is surprising how few of us have a clear idea on what it actually is.
Marx believed that exploitation of workers and of nature went hand-in-hand.
The financial oligarchies differ from other kidnappers by being silent about their power over institutions and policies – they don’t want to alert anyone to what they have done.
Opera goers are high multiplier voters. Win them over and you might get a few more supporters along the way.
The protesters who took to the streets of Paris didn’t know what they wanted: they just knew what they were against. But they did make us think that maybe there is another, better world.
Uncertainty is built into democracy, but we are seeing more talk of crisis and more attempts at redefinition. So where does this leave citizens who want to have a meaningful say in how they live?
Democracy takes many forms, some of them democracy in name only. Confusion and misappropriation complicate the public struggle for the democracy to come, but this challenge is always unending.
Is it really time to eulogise democracy, or are we rather on the cusp of a new phase in its long and varied life?
Australians have reason to be apprehensive that some civil voices are not being heard in our liberal democracy.
Current events show that the old problem of populism is making a comeback, and that populism is indeed an autoimmune disease of our age of monitory democracy.
We’re not sure if the cure, the populist outsider, will work and make life better. but we are willing to experiment as the old certainties of representative politics wither.
Why are we increasingly seeing voters support candidates whose policies are, superficially at least, against their own interests?
While both parties may have set out to modernise and renew their ideologies, the ALP’s and Labour’s attempts to marry the old and new instead precipitated two separate identity crises.
Ambivalence among voters is reason to think about how democracy is working for us as a community. To keep democracy alive we need to be sceptical about the exercise of power and keep it in check.
Each individual act of posting, linking, commenting and liking may look insignificant up close, but they add up. There is enormous power here for mass persuasion, one viral share at a time.
Populist leaders not only attack the institutions of global capital, they also disregard the checks and balances of institutional democracy.
Top contributors
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Assistant researcher, University of Sydney
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Research Fellow, University of Exeter, University of Exeter
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Senior lecturer in democracy studies, University of Canberra
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Adjunct professor, University of Technology Sydney
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Professor of Politics, University of Bristol
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Professor of Politics, University of Sydney
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Lecturer, Public Policy and Political Communications, The University of Melbourne
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Associate Professor of Politics, Australian Catholic University
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Lecturer in Politics, University of Sheffield
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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.
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Professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory, London School of Economics and Political Science
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Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Technology Sydney
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Senior Lecturer, Department of Languages and Linguistics, La Trobe University
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Lecturer in Public Sector Management, University of Canberra
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Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong
