Nathan Pippenger
Do democracies have to choose between diversity and social cohesion? The African-American writer Ralph Ellison spent his career resisting this false choice, arguing that the idea of a 'common culture' did not have to amount to assimilation. Nathan Pippenger argues that Ellison’s distinctive perspective on these issues holds important lessons for democracies today Read more
Remi Chukwudi Okeke
Remi Chukwudi Okeke argues that democracy's adherents often jettison it for other forms of governance, like authoritarianism, when it is no longer convenient for them. Embracing an ethic of inconvenient democracy may undo this pernicious dynamic Read more
Hannah Chapman
Amid concerns of declining support for democracy worldwide, recent research points to a way forward. Hannah Chapman, Margaret Hanson, Valery Dzutsati, and Paul DeBell show that how people define democracy influences their support for it Read more
Peter Donkor
Peter Donkor argues that the democratisation of our social lives is contingent upon a democratic political sphere. Doubling down on 'spillover theory', he urges governments to lead bolder democratisation efforts to show how ever-more democratic procedures are, indeed, preferable to authoritarian regimes and authoritarianism at home, school, work and beyond Read more
Suthan Krishnarajan
Why do people committed to democracy explicitly support undemocratic behaviour by their politicians? Suthan Krishnarajan argues that it all comes down to perception. Sometimes, politicians establish policies that attract widespread support, but they do so in an undemocratic fashion. Citizens then 'rationalise democracy' to reassure themselves that politicians are indeed acting in their best interests Read more
Li-Chia Lo
Li-Chia Lo revisits Rongxin Li’s essay on the Confucian concept of Minben (people-core/root) to offer more context to the concept and to differentiate it from the Chinese concept of Minzhu (people-master). Lo argues that both concepts are different, and we should not elide them Read more
Rongxin Li
An orthodoxy in conventional democratic theory says that voting is all that really matters. Rongxin Li challenges the prominence of electoralism and majoritarianism in representative democratic practice. He argues that consultative democracy confers far more legitimacy on a decision than voting ever can or will Read more
Nojang Khatami
There are good reasons to consider resistance a central element in any definition of democracy. Nojang Khatami invites us to look outside familiar Western experiences for resources of dissent Read more
