‘Accentless’ spoken language is the language of the elite, of authority. It’s the version of the language that is used by the people who have traditionally held all the power.
Of the eight Republicans on stage at the party’s first presidential debate, six were current or former governors.
Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images
A former executive director of the National Governors Association explains what it is about certain governors that makes them less suited for the presidency.
Protesters in Kisumu confront police officers after Kenya’s disputed 2017 elections.
Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images
Kenya’s inability to move past ethnic ideology has made it difficult to develop alternative bases for political organisation.
Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been in power since 2003 and has tried to strengthen the executive branch during that time.
AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, president of Turkey, and Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary, are two leaders who have consolidated power using a similar playbook.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks to reporters in Atlanta on Aug. 14, 2023.
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Throughout US history, a ‘white backlash’ has worked to keep Black officeholders and their constituents out of power. Atlanta DA Fani Willis is just the latest.
Dividing land borders in Ghana is a contentious issue.
Wikimedia Commons
Dennis Penu, International Institute of Social Studies
Ghana’s regions have no autonomy, yet creating new ones is contentious as it threatens the interests of chiefs and political parties.
Thurgood Marshall, left, had a very different view of the purpose of the Supreme Court than his successor, Clarence Thomas.
U.S. Supreme Court via Wikimedia Commons
Throughout Thomas’ tenure on the court, he has pushed the Supreme Court to replace Marshall’s vision with one more amenable to the powerful than the powerless.
Science fiction offers a glimpse of what governments of the world are – and can become.
agsandrew via Getty Images
Branch stacking has been a problem for a long time in Australia, and changing it will take a genuine will to make party processes more open and accountable.
African National Congress top six leaders. The governing party’s wishes are sometimes out of kilter with the dictates of statecraft.
AFP-GettyImages/Mujahid Safodien