Democracy
Fareed Zakaria on the most important lesson of the Trump presidency
“If this becomes the new norm, then we’re starting to look like Latin America 40 years ago.”<p>Twenty years ago, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria noticed a disturbing trend: The governments of ostensibly democratic countries like Pakistan and the Philippines were rolling back press freedoms and the independence …
Foreign PolicyHow Trump's most toxic lie is becoming an institutional reality
When Trump claimed that millions ‘voted illegally’ in 2016, it laid the groundwork for a voter commission that looks set to restrict rights to minorities<p>Of the hundreds of whoppers that President Trump has told since his election, an early one remains the most toxic. In days following his electoral …
OpinionSorry, Hillary Clinton. The Electoral College isn't going anywhere.
<b>(CNN) —</b> Hillary Clinton is no fan of the Electoral College.<p>"I think it needs to be eliminated," Clinton told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Wednesday night. "I'd like to see us move beyond it, yes."<p>Here's the thing: That ain't happening.<p>You wouldn't know that from listening to Democrats, who are …
ElectionsTrump Says Jump. His Supporters Ask, How High?
In the Trump era, Republicans have been revising their views on right and wrong.<p>In 2011, the Public Religion Research Institute asked voters if<p>an elected official who commits an immoral act in their personal life can still behave ethically and fulfill their duties in their public and professional …
U.S. PoliticsAsk Germans Why Less Frequent Elections Make Sense
It's not just voter fatigue with too many election days. The real problem is high cost and less time to make policy.<p>The coming German election may be the last one run on a four-year cycle. The parties now represented in the German parliament and at least one that stands to enter it on Sept. 24 all …
United StatesTa-Nehisi Coates and the Alternatives to Despair
Let’s talk for a moment about Ta-Nehisi Coates, who has one of his blockbuster essays in the Atlantic, on Donald Trump as the latest avatar of an enduring white supremacism. The essay is very long but I think my basic disagreement with it can be distilled by just looking at two passages. Here’s the …
RacismHillary Wants To Abolish The Electoral College. Is There An In-Between Solution?
On Wednesday, CNN broadcast an interview with Hillary Clinton in which she called for an end to the Electoral College:<p>ANDERSON COOPER: In the book, …
Conservative ViewNew Research Exposes Why Competition in U.S. Politics Industry is Failing America - News - Harvard Business School
BOSTON— At a time of high dissatisfaction and distrust with the U.S. political system, Katherine M. Gehl and Michael E. Porter today released new …
Harvard Business SchoolWide Reforms Needed to Have Credible Elections. but It May Be Too Late
analysis<p>Zimbabwe's Constitution requires it to hold elections by July 2018. It seems unlikely that the country's political system will be reformed in …
AfricaPuppet masters and useful idiots
In the dead of night, Baird’s truly Orwellian Liberal Bill<p>A few years ago I returned to Sydney after nearly a life-time spent working in England. With my interest in politics undimmed, I joined and offered to help the local Liberals. I was flattered to be immediately snapped up, only later …
AuthoritarianismAmerican Democracy and its Critics - Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
I just happened to come across this article of mine from 2014: it’s a review published in the American Journal of Sociology of the book “American …
Statistical Modeling'I take my vote very seriously': New Germans reflect on voting in the upcoming federal election
Three million new Germans can vote on September 24th. Here are four first-time voters who reflect on their paths to citizenship as well as on …
Angela MerkelWhy Brexit and Trump make me nervous about the marriage equality vote
Hardline conservative forces have some powerful recent precedents as they target soft voters in the ‘silent majority’. We must not let them own the argument<p>Let’s say you live in Potts Point or Darlinghurst or Fitzroy or Brunswick. You’ve checked your enrolment details, you’ve familiarised yourself …
Same-sex Marriage'It stinks': Can political donations be corrected and voter confidence restored in the electoral system?
Liberal senator Linda Reynolds says the average Australian voter would say the political system ‘stinks’. Reynolds and Labor lower house member Andrew Giles, both members of the joint standing committee on electoral matters, join Katharine Murphy to discuss their hopes of correcting disclosure …
Campaign FundraisingThe Time Has Come: Reform the Electoral College Now
The founders created the Electoral College, but the states made it winner-take-all. And that's the Achilles Heel where a new group has aimed its arrow.<p>At the core of a democracy lies a simple principle—that votes should count equally. Whether you’re white or black, rich or poor, or from Rapid City …
GovernmentAmerica's shameful history of voter suppression
Voter fraud is more rare than being struck by lightening, yet the fear mongering persists. Don’t blame Donald Trump – blame America’s democratic model<p>When Kris Kobach was first running for office in Kansas in 2010, he claimed he’d found evidence that thousands of Kansans were assuming the …
News (U.S.)Is Hillary Clinton Right About Why She Lost?
In this week’s politics chat, we talk about Hillary Clinton’s new book. The transcript below has been lightly edited.<p><b>micah</b> (Micah Cohen, politics …
ElectionsHow Christian nationalism gave Trump the White House
<i>This is the third entry in a series on Christian nationalism and the religious groups supporting Donald Trump. You can read the first one here and</i> …
Liberal ViewWill global populism continue to erode democracies?
As we head into election season in Europe, the question that dominated the past spring’s elections remains on everyone’s mind: What will be the fate of populist movements, parties and candidates? I reached out to Stanford University political scientist Anna Grzymała-Busse, who just guest-edited a …
PoliticsThe new center cannot hold
The ranks of political pundits can be divided between those who swoon for expressions of centrist bipartisanship and those who respond to such …
PoliticsLack of competition, accountability are crippling America’s ability to thrive, report says
There’s a general consensus that Washington is “broken.” But the reason politics doesn’t seem to deliver for citizens anymore may not involve who’s …
Harvard#AlwaysTrump
When reality becomes a nightmare, dreams begin to seem like a form of sanity. Amid the waking nightmare that has been the Trump presidency, liberals …
Liberal ViewHarvard Business School’s Latest Case Study Looks at American Politics and Finds a Rigged System
The U.S. political system isn’t broken. It’s working exactly the way the two main parties designed it.<p>That’s the conclusion of a new <b>Harvard Business School</b> study. Authors <b>Katherine Gehl</b>, president and CEO of Gehl Foods, and <b>Michael Porter</b>, a professor at the school, apply business theory to the U.S. …
Harvard Business SchoolVotes for corporations and extra votes for property owners: why local council elections are undemocratic
Imagine, for a minute, an undemocratic political system. Imagine a voting system in which someone has more votes than you because they own property. …
Right To VoteIdaho sends 10 delegates to balanced budget convention
Idaho has sent 10 lawmakers to a planning meeting in Arizona to debate details for carrying out a growing national effort to amend the Constitution …
BusinessVoter Registration Is the Real Resistance
AP Photo/Lynne SladkyMayra Rodriguez, right, assists a man with a voter registration form at the Miami-Dade County Elections Department in 2016. The …
U.S. PoliticsImmigrants are getting the right to vote in cities across America, which is Trump's worst nightmare
A Maryland city voted Tuesday night to enfranchise non-citizens, the latest in a growing effort to expand immigrant voting rights.<p>The city council in …
ImmigrationStudy: US government its own worst enemy
WASHINGTON – A new analysis by the Harvard Business School outlines why U.S. voters are so frustrated with their political leaders — there is a lack of genuine competition between Republicans and Democrats to deliver actual results on major policies such as education, health care, taxes and …
Harvard Business SchoolWhat’s Clinton smoking? Failed candidate claims trusting government is key to avoiding authoritarianism
In her new book, <i></i>It’s Everyone Else’s Fault What Happened, failed 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton bizarrely argues that the key to keeping …
Conservative ViewRegister Voters Like Guns? Trump's Bogus ''Voter Fraud'' Commission Is Just Trolling the US
On Tuesday, Kobach held the second meeting of the commission and was once again embarrassed by his sloppy extremism. In a Breitbart column last week, …
Liberal View