Stories

Hungary election
Hungary
The opposition understood the assignment.
The Hungarian 3-step plan to beat an authoritarian.  Autocrats around the world will study Orbán’s successes: how to consolidate power over time, how to reward loyalists, how to weaken watchdogs, and how to loot the state while...
Photos by Bruno Kaufmann
VADUZ
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS BRUNO KAUFMANN? Vaduz
Visiting The Capital of Liechtenstein, a Tiny Industrial Powerhouse with a Princely Paradox.
GABORONE
REGISTER NOW for the 2026 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy
Please join us in Botswana
LOS ANGELES
VIDEO: Can Cities Lead on Climate Change?
USC Panel Explains Why, Around the World, All Climate Action Is Local
SACRAMENTO
COLUMN California Independence Is Here. And It's Working
From Climate to Human Rights, California Is Already Its Own Republic
Made with Google Gemini
LILLE
REPORT The Global State of Direct Democracy 2026, Local First
The annual report digs deep on local democracy, and finds growth.
CC BY 2.0. Photo by Extinction Rebellion
READINGS
A Book of Democratic Briliance and Deliberative Myopia
Helene Landemore's "Politics Without Politicians" has the right diagnosis, but a narrow cure.
BAKU
NEWSLETTER Algorithmic Democracy, and Letters for the Future
Also: Making Citizenship Local, Proactive Localism; On to Cascais
Bulgaria town
KARPACHEVO
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS BRUNO KAUFMANN? Karpachevo
A Bulgarian Village at a Turbulent Tipping Point
los angeles map
LOS ANGELES
COLUMN Reform Isn't Enough. The City Must Be Refounded
Existential Threats Require New Boundaries, New Finance, New Civil Defense
While the Citizens’ Assembly 2025 went ahead at the national level in Switzerland last year, a similar project in Geneva was cancelled at short notice by local authorities in early 2026. Keystone / Alessandro Della Valle
GENEVA
SWI Are Citizens Assemblies Declining With Democracy?
Long-Planned Assembly in Geneva Canceled by Authorities Just Before It Was to Begin