Majority of voters say American democracy is ‘currently under threat’: Poll
More than three-quarters of Americans say democracy is currently under threat, according to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll. Seventy-six percent of likely voters say democracy is “currently under threat,” while only 20 percent say it’s not under threat. Another four percent say they don’t know or refused to answer. Americans are divided, however,…
Two of the US’s biggest newspapers have refused to endorse a presidential candidate. This is how democracy dies
In February 2017, as Donald Trump took office, The Washington Post adopted the first slogan in its 140-year history: Democracy Dies in Darkness. How ironic, then, that it should now be helping to extinguish the flame of American democracy by refusing to endorse a candidate for the forthcoming presidential election. This decision, and a similar one by the second of America’s big three newspapers, the Los Angeles Times, disgraces journalism, disgraces the papers’ own heritage and represents an abandonment of civic responsibility at a moment when United States faces its most consequential presidential election since the Civil War. At stake is whether...
How different people around the world understand democracy – and why it matters
Most people in most countries say they want to be governed democratically. Because democracy’s appeal is so powerful, governments and political leaders everywhere claim to be supporters of democracy. Take China, for instance. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has ruled for decades under a single-party system, a system that...