Stories

United States
How voting by mail can save the US presidential elections
While timely and necessary, the measures to halt the spread of COVID-19 have had an enormous impact not only on our daily lives, but also on our democracies. In this series, we try to asses how democratic practice has been...
Tunisia
Realising the promise of the revolution during a health crisis in Tunisia
While timely and necessary, the measures to halt the spread of COVID-19 have had an enormous impact not only on our daily lives, but also on our democracies. In this series, we try to asses how democratic practice has been...
France
French local elections in democratic limbo
While timely and necessary, the measures to halt the spread of COVID-19 have had an enormous impact not only...
Austria
What the Austrian lockdown teaches us about our basic civil rights
While timely and necessary, the measures to halt the spread of COVID-19 have had an enormous impact not only...
Photo: Jeff Hitchcock (CC BY 2.0) https://creativecommons.org
European Union
European Citizens' Initiative: Collecting signatures under a lockdown
While timely and necessary, the measures to halt the spread of COVID-19 have had an enormous impact not only...
Courtesy of Tobias Nordhausen (CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
Germany
Do we have to worry about democracy?
The first shockwave is over. The personal contact ban in Germany has been in place for two weeks now and is...
Hungary
Orbán's reach for unlimited power
On Monday 3o March, the Hungarian parliament approved sweeping emergency powers for the government, in its...
Mexico
New in the Community: Ollin
In 'New in the Community' we introduce one of the members of our International Democracy Community in more...
Article photo: Grand débat national organisé à Reims - G.Garitan (CC BY-SA 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
France
The 2019 Grand Débat National in France: A Participatory Experiment with...
Everyone remembers the Yellow Vests movement. Few remember the Grand Débat National. Yet, together they make...
Orly airport Photo courtesy of Naotake Murayama (CC BY 2.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
France
Unlikely allies: how the ever-divided French Left and Right triggered a...
In April last year, civil demands to stop the privatization of one of France’s public ‘’crown jewels’’, the...
Rafael Pineiro, board member of Democracy International, leaves a polling station in Kansas during the 2014 US midterm elections, with several ballot measures.
International
Long Life, Low Taxes and a Cleaner Environment: The Policy Effect of...
There has been no shortage of criticisms of direct democracy in general citizen-referendums in particular....
The European Pubic Sphere in Vienna
European Union
Behind citizen’s powerlessness: nostalgia, resentment and hope
With our eyes now turning towards Brussels and the upcoming launch of the Conference on the Future of Europe...