US Democracy

January 18

How Democracy Can Defeat Autocracy

January 16

Civil war in the US is unlikely because grievance doesn’t necessarily translate directly into violence

January 13

Protecting voting rights isn’t enough to protect democracy

January 12

Human Rights Watch 2022 Report

Opinion: Why the 2024 election could be decided state by state this November

January 11

Biden’s Georgia speech was a call to save democracy as we know it

America and Europe Defeated Authoritarians Before, And Can Do So Again

January 10

Opinion: Southeast Asia’s autocrats have created an alliance against democracy

Big lies threaten the stability of the United States

Juan Williams: American democracy will die unless voting rights are protected

January 9

The Cheneys can’t do it alone. We need Republican all-stars to fix Democracy. 

Is the US really headed for a second civil war?

January 7

Biden’s Biggest Worry: Can Democracy Be Worth Saving. What really preoccupies the president, however, was summed up in a quieter passage that came near the end of the speech, one that didn’t get as much notice. If there is a sweeping premise that defines what Biden views as the greatest challenge of his presidency, it is that the United States must disprove a growing cynicism about democracy itself — not just in this country, but around the world. Amid deep political polarization and an undermining of norms, the processes have become so messy and fraught that people are losing faith that democratic systems are still capable of functioning and of delivering results.

January 7

10 ideas to fix democracy 

January 6

January 6 and the Paradoxes of America’s Democracy Agenda

(D)emocracy rests on what the late political scientist Robert Dahl called a “system of mutual security.” Each side in the democratic contest must have confidence that the other side will play by the rules of the democratic game, accept defeat if that is its fate, and return to fight another day. The political fight must be restrained by mutual respect, mutual trust, and mutual restraint—respect for the right of opposing political forces to contest and criticize, trust that the other side will not eliminate it if it comes to power, and restraint in the methods used to contest for and hold power. No democracy can long survive a political atmosphere devoid of these norms. Yet that is the abyss into which American democracy is descending…a variety of different polls, using varying wording and methodologies, have all documented a growing willingness of the American people to consider or condone political violence. When the polarization between two political camps reaches the point that each side regards the other as morally intolerable, as an existential threat to the country’s future, democracy is at risk…Well before Trump began to use the power and prestige of the presidency to trample on democratic norms, ratings agencies noted a decline in the quality of U.S. democracy. Analysts at Freedom House have shown the decline unfolding steadily between 2010 and 2020, dropping the country’s “freedom score” by 11 points—from 94 to 83—on a 100-point scale. ..There exists a legislative remedy to this threat to democracy: the Freedom to Vote Act, forged through compromise between progressive and moderate Democratic U.S. senators. It would address not only the rising dangers of voter suppression and partisan sabotage of the electoral process but two other scourges of American democracy, gerrymandering and dark money. It would bring American democracy at least somewhat closer to the standards of impartial, independent, professional election administration that make this vital function noncontroversial in wealthy democracies, such as Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, and most EU members, and even in numerous less prosperous democracies, including Costa Rica, India, and Mexico. 

20202

Fixing Democracy: The Election Security Crisis and Solutions for Mending It