Some Swedish local authorities have embraced online services and forms of digital democracy. Others have been slow to take up the opportunity. Gustav Lidén rates the country’s 290 municipalities according to the depth of their digital engagement, and looks at the possible factors influencing it. Lack of enthusiasm from senior politicians and bureaucratic inertia are key […]
A victory for Donald Trump would pose uncomfortable questions for Britain about the future of the UK-US relationship, writes Tim Oliver. Despite similarities between the nascent populism in both countries, Trump presents so many unknowns that the core of the relationship could be strained as never before. Similar PostsLend us your ears: fixing the crisis of […]
Recent days have seen ferocious attacks against the roles of both judges and parliamentarians in our democratic system. Alan Renwick and Meg Russell write that this assault is just the latest in a series of signs that the quality of our democracy is under threat. They argue for concerted efforts to defend that democracy: pushing back […]
Introduced under the Thatcher government, ‘Right to Buy’ has had a formative effect on housing in the UK for the past 35 years. In The Right to Buy? Selling Off Public and Social Housing, Alan Murie examines the policy’s long-standing and ongoing impact, and considers the implications of its more recent extension. While more explicit […]
Germany has experienced a rise in xenophobic attacks since it began to welcome refugees from Syria and elsewhere. Sebastian Jäckle and Pascal D. König have mapped these attacks and drawn some striking conclusions about their causes. They were more common in regions with a strong far-right presence and fewer migrants. One attack also tended to spark others – as […]
Sadiq Khan is keen for London to acquire more control over health, education and taxes – as well as powers to offset the likely impact of Brexit, such as a London-only work permit. But will he get his way? Akash Paun points out the powers of the Mayor and Assembly fall far short of the […]
South Tyrol, an autonomous and predominantly German-speaking province in northern Italy, is regarded as one of the most successful cases of ‘consociational’ democracy – a political system in which people deeply divided along ethnic, linguistic, or other lines share power. One of the rights that speakers of German, Italian and Ladin living in the province […]
What can we learn from ancient Greece when it comes to designing spaces for political debate? In an article for Theatrum Mundi, Richard Sennett describes how ancient Athenians used amphitheatres and the agora to debate, take decisions and participate in public life. He recalls Aristotle’s notion of how a complex urban society could reconcile differences. Modern societies – […]
The Momentum movement and the rise in Labour membership are, Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters argue, proof that the party is returning to its roots and embracing ordinary people’s concerns. But political scientists tend to be sceptical about intra-party democracy, because party members are usually more radical than the average voter. Fabio Wolkenstein says claims that Labour has […]
If democracy is in a bad state and marred by chronic distrust, what is the remedy? In Against Elections: The Case for Democracy, David Van Reybrouck suggests an ancient solution: sortition, or the selection of officials from the general public through a lottery system. While the book does a great job of opening up discussions […]
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