Democracy

Framing ethical perspectives

Democracy is a form of government in which political control is given to the people, whether directly or through the election of governing officials. Currently, large numbers of people have lost faith in this form of government and some elected officials have been working to dismantle democratic institutions. Our programs, events, and experts strive to better understand this development.

Featured Democracy Resources

State of global democracy, U.S. global engagement, and more

JUN 9, 2021 Podcast

Illiberal Democracy on the Rise: Examining Brazil, Hungary, & India

APR 19, 2022 Podcast

Why Democracy vs. Autocracy Misses the Point, with Jean-Marie Guéhenno

Senior Fellow Anja Kapsersen is joined by Professor Jean-Marie Guéhenno for a conversation about virtual communities and the advent of the age of data.

FEB 23, 2024 Article

What Do We Mean When We Talk About "AI Democratization"?

With numerous parties calling for "AI democratization," Elizabeth Seger, director of the CASM digital policy research hub at Demos, discusses four meanings of the term.

Explore Our Democracy Resources

MAR 5, 2019 Podcast

Challenges to American Democracy, with Michael Waldman

"We're all really proud of our system. It's the world's oldest democracy, and we've always had to fight to make it real," says Michael Waldman ...

FEB 25, 2019 Podcast

How to Think about War: An Ancient Guide to Foreign Policy, with Johanna Hanink

Why has there been a sudden interest in Thucydides, especially in the U.S.? Johanna Hanink discusses her new book of translations and introductions to ...

FEB 20, 2019 Podcast

Jerome A. Cohen on the Taiwan Relations Act

U.S.-Taiwan relations have long been an ingenious balancing act of "strategic ambiguity." What does the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act entail and why is it ...

FEB 19, 2019 Article

Competing Bipartisan Consensuses?

Is there any bipartisan political consensus on U.S. foreign policy? Nikolas Gvosdev argues that voters want to see the United States involved in world ...

FEB 12, 2019 Podcast

The Future is Asian, with Parag Khanna

"The rise of China is not the biggest story in the world," says Parag Khanna. "The Asianization of Asia, the return of Asia, the rise ...

FEB 7, 2019 Podcast

Global Ethics Weekly: The Situation in Western Sahara, with Ambassador Sidi Omar

Ambassador Sidi Omar, UN representative for Frente POLISARIO, a liberation movement aiming to secure the independence of Western Sahara, discusses the decades-long dispute in Northwest ...

FEB 6, 2019 Podcast

The Free Speech Century, with Lee Bollinger & Geoffrey Stone

The Supreme Court's 1919 decision in "Schenck v. United States" is one of the most important free speech cases in American history. Because of it we ...

UN patrol team, Western Sahara. CREDIT: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/7443183172">UN Photo/Martine Perret</a>.

FEB 5, 2019 Article

A Chance for Peace in Western Sahara

"For over a century, the people of Western Sahara have been denied our fundamental right to decide our future," writes Sidi Omar, UN representative for ...

FEB 5, 2019 Article

The New Congress and U.S. Foreign Policy

What does the new Congress think about U.S. foreign policy? Nikolas Gvosdev looks at how the Democratcs and Republicans will approach some important questions ...

JAN 30, 2019 Podcast

The Crack-Up: Ireland's Quest for Self-Determination, with Christopher L. Pastore

In the third podcast in The Crack-Up series, which looks at how 1919 shaped the modern world, Ted Widmer discusses the story of the Irish Declaration ...