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Authoritarian populists are gaining power from Ankara to Athens, from Warsaw to Washington. Meanwhile, popular support for democratic values is sliding in many countries around the world. Is our political system in existential danger? And what can we do to save it?

Creative expression takes many forms. Through history, art has provoked a range of feelings: emotion, empathy, fear, surprise, joy, compassion, anger. Now, amidst a time of national angst, where many in society might not hear the voices of those who don’t agree, a group of remarkable artists and political strategists are imagining ways that art can be used to catalyze dif...

The world is in turmoil. From Italy to Turkey, and from Hungary to the United States, authoritarian populists have seized power. As a result, political scientist and author Yascha Mounk argues that democracy itself may now be at risk. How did we get here, and what do we need to do now? If we are unwilling to give up on either individual rights or the popular will, urgent a...

Across the globe, free and fair elections have given rise to autocratic regimes. Have we underestimated the fragility of democracy and overestimated its value? (Book signing with Shadi Hamid to follow.)

The notion of applying principles of democracy to governance has been around for centuries, increasingly popular as citizens across the globe discover the value of participatory government and the power that it invests in them. But is democracy working in the 21st century? Stanford historian Jack Rakove shares perspectives on the Founders' views of how the system should wo...

In the last decade, the people of democratic societies across the globe have elected autocratic leaders. These populist strongmen have undermined democratic institutions with a disregard for the rule of law, expertise, and the truth. Is their election the symptom of already advanced societal illnesses, or is it the disease itself? In countries where the damage to democracy...

As Israel marks its 75th birthday, the existential challenges it faces don’t only come from geopolitical vulnerabilities. How will the Jewish state confront internal divisions and divergent opinions about threats to its democratic institutions?

Our politics is polarized, and, with Donald Trump poised for a comeback, democracy is in peril. Drawing on themes from his book, The Tyranny of Merit: Can We Find the Common Good?, Michael Sandel explains how we arrived at this rancorous political moment and suggests how we can repair our civic life. Followed by a discussion with journalists David Leonhardt and Annie Murph...

Worried about the health of our democracy? There’s a bright light. Nation-wide the social sector is expanding to include NGOs led by a new generation, entrepreneurs building companies that offer a social return, networks of change-makers who share a profession or passion, and philanthropies taking many new forms. Together they’re tackling hard problems at the community and...

The vacuum created by the collapse of independent local news in America has given rise to ghost papers, partisan hackery, unverified rumors, and worse. Yet, new cohorts of news organizations are taking root to fill that void, often supported by philanthropy, public contributions, and new creative means of sustainability. At stake is the information that all citizens need t...

While more than 100 countries have adopted democracy over the last two centuries, it’s already been a decade since political scientist Larry Diamond posited a “democratic recession” sweeping the globe. The revolt of the middle class, the rise of China, and power grabs through military coups are just a few factors that suggest a disturbing trend of democratic deterioration....

When we speak and associate with others in real life, the First Amendment governs interactions, granting broad rights of individual speech and association. Yet when we interact online, we submit to terms of service from private companies. The consequence is that private platforms have become the new governors of speech and association. As if that weren’t bad enough, the pl...

Do American universities have an obligation to educate their students to be the next generation of citizens and civic leaders? What does it mean for a university “to offer students an education that will promote their flourishing as human beings, their judgment as moral agents, and their participation in society as democratic citizens”? Join a workshop with leaders from th...

Democracy is in danger, not only in foreign places where autocrats rule, but also here at home. We are divided between those who would let the people rule and those who would allow rule by the powerful, greedy few. Defending our democratic system takes a new kind of democratic practice. It’s not only the practice of communal celebration; it’s the cultivation of self. Presi...

Readers, viewers, and subscribers want and need accurate news and information, but as we attempt to navigate among publishers and platforms and networks, who is ultimately responsible for telling us the truth? Who should be held accountable for information that is inaccurate, intentionally misleading, or straight-up fake? And what can media and information organizations do...

The 2016 presidential campaign broke down previously established rules and distinctions between insiders and outsiders and various types of media — all accelerated by the Internet. The velocity of information and viral communication can create dysfunction in campaigns and within democracy. And for a relatively small investment in resources, a country's media can be infiltr...

The Founders created a representative republic rather than a direct democracy, designed to slow down deliberation so that majorities could rule based on reason rather than passion. But in the age of Facebook and Twitter, new social media technologies have unleashed populist passions and accelerated public discourse to warp speed, creating the very mobs, demagogues, echo ch...

It is common wisdom: Inequality is terrible for democracy. What choices exist for executives seeking to invest in democracy and its institutions? The idea that business leaders can keep their heads down and maximize profits, and that liberal democracy will follow, feels flawed in these times. How might business help rebuild our democracy? What are the levers for change? Th...

This is not a moment to take democracy for granted. The 2016 emergence of Donald Trump and his populist counterparts in Europe didn’t signal the start of something new. Rather, they announced a long simmering, troubling trend away from liberal democracy in the United States and elsewhere. How did we get here? How are Western values shifting? What might the future hold?