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![Is Democracy in Danger?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null306f7edc-c534-4aa3-97a5-8cc07b2a8368/35426530241_1f19df837f_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=256%2C0%2C1087%2C1087&w=290)
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?
![Can Art Save Democracy?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/01f28611-cde3-444b-a688-b4090f0e61f7/42973787742_77222dd072_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1376%2C0%2C5504%2C5504&w=290)
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 People vs. Democracy](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/86aaef96-4d14-4ea3-ba6c-aed3724accfb/42351077414_f7b7e49129_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=445%2C0%2C2110%2C2110&w=290)
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...
![Six Hours to Save Democracy](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/f9a5a299-b406-461f-9560-4ece89e6df9e/53814692080_d97793c5e7_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=2256%2C0%2C4641%2C4640&w=290)
What if the threat to American democracy came from within our own military? “War Game,” a 2024 Sundance Official Selection documentary, imagined just such a scenario and convened a bipartisan group of policymakers to respond. What did they learn — and how real is the threat?
![Has Democracy Run Its Course?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null468ec447-00d0-4b32-82a4-5ff16e8edb40/35461441231_c39630a01e_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=266%2C0%2C1068%2C1068&w=290)
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...
![Will Democracy Self-Destruct?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/ab01c0af-cefb-40cb-a810-a3b030799fdc/52177661606_f9d5a1ebe3_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=828%2C0%2C3343%2C3343&w=290)
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...
![Why Democracy is in Peril and What We Can Do about It](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/03c962db-5f7f-4a4d-aa4e-497c3683f70e/52178737794_b81c82cf8d_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1376%2C0%2C5504%2C5504&w=290)
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...
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...
![Liberal Democracy is at Risk at Home and Abroad](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/9f2b1700-0101-4213-91de-3da14af9e341/42328345334_54fc448fc9_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=531%2C0%2C1937%2C1937&w=290)
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....
![Is Your Online Bubble a Threat to Democracy?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/f031701e-2ddd-4b72-a089-26f4b5f6e7c6/29176506438_dd91a90416_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1376%2C0%2C5504%2C5504&w=290)
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...
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...
![Can the Future of Democracy Be Found Through Work?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d10daa2c-ba04-4ad4-84aa-e9d559c0e3fd/futureofdemocracy.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=2173%2C0%2C4635%2C4640&w=290)
Americans are expected to be active political citizens and leave their opinions at the workplace door. Renewed efforts to expand participation, representation and shared decision-making at work — think employee ownership, labor unions and an expanded set of economic rights — may offer a framework to rebuild faith in democracy.
![Social Media Versus American Democracy](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/ecff0e10-0252-4638-8be0-e00347b160f3/29136464838_a9f0d469ef_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1120%2C0%2C4480%2C4480&w=290)
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...
![Will the Rise of Populism Destroy Liberal Democracy?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/241ad5bd-5e96-4090-9717-f5e44ecc5182/35482538952_8a6e1ed428_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1000%2C0%2C4016%2C4016&w=290)
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?
![#Republic: Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null7e8b9d9e-dfa1-4f42-9ba5-34a9921a871e/35170323670_0626ac205a_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=284%2C0%2C1032%2C1032&w=290)
In a well-functioning democracy, people do not live in echo chambers or filter bubbles; rather, citizens are exposed to myriad ideas and perspectives even if not their own. Constitutional scholar Cass Sunstein suggests that our current obsession with social media and our online friend groups narrow the scope of the kinds of daily and serendipitous interactions that might o...
![The Future of the Democratic Party](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d4dd51ae-2f8b-4d1c-8a1f-d3e0cc338567/52181703895_00b4d48fb7_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1036%2C0%2C3927%2C3927&w=290)
The Democratic majority in Congress hangs by a thread, and with it the Biden administration’s ability to accomplish much of its agenda. What the past two years have shown us is a party with aging leadership, held hostage by two senators, and divided by different visions of its core mission and values. With the 2022 midterms just around the corner and questions already bein...
![Dispatches from the Front Lines of American Democracy](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nulla22360a7-f642-4150-a78d-72170060b638/35402107962_899b801855_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=266%2C0%2C1068%2C1068&w=290)
Americans speak with many voices, and nobody hears more of those voices than the people they elect to represent them and to fulfill the various tasks of governing. A member of Houston City Council, an eight-year mayor of a diverse California community, an elected public-service regulator from a few miles south of the Canadian border, and a state attorney general from a hig...
![Edge of Chaos: Why Democracy Is Failing to Deliver Economic Growth](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/15a06ceb-ed99-4e6b-b4d9-02601d93d281/28246190487_0d92070332_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=688%2C0%2C5504%2C5504&w=290)
Around the world, people who are angry at stagnant wages and growing inequality have rebelled against established governments and turned to political extremes. Liberal democracy, history's greatest engine of growth, now struggles to overcome unprecedented economic headwinds — from aging populations to scarce resources to unsustainable debt burdens. Democracies risk falling...
![Generosity: Revitalizing Democracy Together](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/00af454b-3f7b-4021-b1b4-eca1342379bc/53816511741_3decd3b834_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1878%2C0%2C3168%2C3169&w=290)
The engaged citizen is democracy’s greatest asset, but many Americans are disillusioned and disengaged, and feel a loss of agency. In this focus group conversation, next-generation volunteers, givers, leaders — and audience members — share what motivates and what gets in the way.
![American Democracy in 2018: What Would the Founders Think?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/e5da65a3-aac7-45b5-8578-602d80110cdb/43115129891_f3cb20a4d2_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=498%2C0%2C2003%2C2003&w=290)
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson united in support of the US Constitution, but they had very different ideas about how to strike the balance between national power and states’ rights, and between direct democracy and checks on the tyranny of the majority. Join David Rubenstein and Jeffrey Rosen for a conversation about the constitutional battles of i...