When the 2011 Libyan civil war erupted, Twitter became a major instrument to air the rebels’ account of the conflict and present themselves internationally as a viable alternative to Moammar Gadhafi.
With public trust in government at an all-time low, it’s time we prioritised political reform and put in place a comprehensive roadmap for effective, long-term change.
Can Spain learn from a decade marked by high-profile political corruption scandals involving money embezzled from regional governments and mismanagement in urban planning and construction?
Federal politicians and the public like the idea of abolishing the states. But consider the likely result: a more powerful Canberra, with regional governments amounting to glorified shire councils.
It would be short-sighted to believe that a more far-reaching transformation than a royal succession might not also be in store for the Kingdom of Thailand.
Ibrahim Oanda, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa
Africa’s universities supposedly became more independent after the early 1990s. But it appears they haven’t achieved much more than cosmetic autonomy from political interference.
Democracy’s problem is not the crisis but the triumph of capitalism. Democracy has become market-conforming, resulting in whole sections of society lacking meaningful representation.
In 1988 students from the University of Zimbabwe began demonstrating against government corruption. Their protests grew into a national movement that indelibly changed the country.
The Abbott government resisted the disruptive changes of the 21st century. To succeed, the Turnbull government will need to shed this reactionary mindset and embrace inevitable change.
It has significant public support across party lines, but politicians who advocate Australia becoming a republic are likely to have their priorities and even their right to do so questioned.
Candidates from Spain’s ‘15M’ movement – born of mass protests in 2011 – have responded in various ways to the dilemma that being elected creates for those wishing to overturn the ‘old politics’.
Politics in Nepal will hinder relief and recovery efforts following the earthquake and its aftershocks. But look at it the other way around. Could the disaster help to resolve political problems?
Even as the challenges of climate change grow ever more obvious, what remains largely unacknowledged is the crisis in liberal democratic politics that is preventing an effective response.
Professor of Comparative Political Science and Democracy Research at the Humboldt University Berlin; Associate of the Sydney Democracy Network, University of Sydney; Director of Research Unit Democracy: Structures, Performance, Challenges, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.