Democracy Local

COLUMN The Mayor From Jaws Can Save Our City

Larry Vaughn Is Perfect for a City Determined to Ignore Serious Threats

ASIA DEMOCRACY CHRONICLES Across Asia, Youth Demand for Reform

Asia Democracy Network's 2026 Democracy Overview Tackles, Youth and Power Across Asia

Photo by Stephan Uttom Rozario

This Election Stole Christmas

Dhaka was quiet at Christmas—as Bangladeshis fear traveling because of election-related violence. (photo by

The presidential and vice presidential candidates of Taiwan's ruling DPP party (Photo by Joe Mathews)

Can Democracy Survive 2024?

2024 is the biggest election year in history. That may be bad for democracy.

Polling place in Surrey, British Columbia (Canada) for global Khalistan referendum

The Global Vote On Sikh Autonomy

The Khalistan referendum is not just about the Punjab. It's a preview of a future with transnational direct...

HK's District Elections Are New Target

More rules on district elections undermine democracy

Go to Bed, My City Council

Late-night decisions backfire

Reviving Brazil's Local Budgeting

Letter from Brazil, on the Birth, Decline, and Resurgence of Participatory Budgeting

A Peace Wall in Belfast, courtesy of photographer Stephen Wilson.

What Belfast and L.A. Have in Common

Democracy in divided cities requires remembering and forgetting.

The first gathering of the People's Assembly in Athens, Sept. 27 (photo by Joe Mathews)

The Next Democracy, On Athens Hill

Democracy was first built on a lot of loose rock.

I Went Back In Time to City Future

... a City's Democratic Future. I was more than a little startled when Konrad Adenauer approached me in the...

PHOTO CREDIT: A celebration outside the Louvre after Macron’s election victory in 2017. SOURCE: Photo by Lorie Shaull, via Flicker https://www.flickr.com/photos/number7cloud/34527195605 and Creative Commons license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

France: Too Central For Democracy?

Might this month’s French elections be the prelude to another French Revolution?