It may be accepted wisdom that Australians are disengaged from politics, but there are plenty of other indicators to suggest otherwise.
AAP/Richard Wainwright
The people of Haiti are furious at their leaders and want to have their say – but the outside world has other priorities.
Volunteers prepare to canvass in support of Oregon’s Measure 91, a ballot initiative that legalized recreational marijuana in Oregon.
REUTERS/Steve Dipaola
Data shows that voters organizing ballot initiatives on issues like marijuana use and plastic bag bans are doing more than creating DIY laws – they are spreading happiness.
Has the American political system fallen so low that it requires a massive injection of anti-democratic behaviour to make it more ‘democratic’?
Reuters/James Glover II
The dwindling ranks of those who line up to defend America’s system are able to do so only if they view it through a prism of its lofty 18th-century ideals, rather than 21st-century realities.
President Xi Jinping and the rest of the Chinese leadership do not get to positions of national leadership without undergoing decades of trials to demonstrate their capacity to run a country.
Reuters/Carlos Barria
The China Model features political meritocracy at the top, democracy at the bottom and experimentation in between. The West can learn from the best of Chinese leadership, even if it is authoritarian.
For better or for worse, various countries around the world charted a new course last year. What lies ahead for 2016?
South Africa was hit by an unprecedented wave of student protests against fee hikes, racism and for the decolonisation of curriculum.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
Many works published on decolonisation originate from Ngugi wa Thiongo’s idea of decolonising the African mind. Imperialism, he writes, has left its mark on the minds of the previously colonised.
Political conventions may be challenged and redefined by every new government, but it is their role in promoting political accountability that ensures the health of our democracy.
Graffiti by LMNOPI in Brooklyn, New York.
Carlo Allegri/Reuters
With more and more street artists partnering with corporations, it’s important that they don’t compromise their moral standing to earn a living.
Waiting in the wings as parliament sits in its final session after the election, Aung San Suu Kyi and her victorious NLD face the challenge of huge public expectations.
EPA/Nyein Chan Naing
Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD has won Myanmar’s elections in a landslide, but must lead the transition to democratic rule carrying the hopes of tens of millions of voters who expect life to be transformed.
Stefan Rousseau / PA Wire/Press Association Images
Myanmar is holding elections, but like the many other authoritarian regimes that do so, it isn’t for democratic reasons and regime change remains highly unlikely.
21 years into democracy, are South Africa’s university students showing other citizens how best to hold the state accountable?
EPA/Ihsaan Haffejee
University students in South Africa have shown the potential of mass mobilisation to influence policy in advancing justice for their constitutional democratic rights.
Bill Shorten said politicians and government must find ways to re-engage a generation of young people.
AAP/Dan Himbrechts
There is a growing canyon now separating politics as understood and practiced by political authorities from the political practices of everyday people.
Picturing the victims of the Ankara bombing at an anti-government protest.
Reuters/Umit Bektas