Democracy: A Consensus?

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Pete Martin critiques the media coverage of the U.S. presidential elections.

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During the Republican National Convention in early September, John McCain’s campaign manager told members of the press: “This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.” American voters interested in the future of their country might be disappointed that one of their presidential candidates attempted to avoid a substantive discussion of policy differences during the election season. [...]

Edward Cohen and David Robert Howell dissect the idea of a ‘league of democracies’.

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“History has returned,” writes Robert Kagan, “and the democracies must come together to shape it, or others will shape it for them.” This penultimate sentence in the first section of The Return of History and the End of Dreams not only forms the core premise of Kagan’s short book, but it also serves as a proverb for the Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain. Kagan’s concluding call for a league of democracies has become a major element of McCain’s foreign policy platform. [...]

Stephen McGuinness discusses the impact of secularism in France and the United States.

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In 1801, Thomas Jefferson received a letter from the Danbury Baptists thanking him for defending religious freedom through his championing of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In 1802, he published his reply. [...]

Patrick Hurley examines the Campaign Finance Reform debate in the United States.

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Athletes at the Beijing Olympics were not the only ones to break world records this year. In the United States, candidates in the Presidential race have so far spent more than U.S. $995 million on their campaigns, making it the most expensive election in history. It is expected that the final two candidates will need to raise $500 million apiece and that the figure of total spending by all candidates will exceed one billion dollars. [...]

Zilka Grogan explores the role of history, politics, economics and personality in Russia’s nascent democracy.

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It is around election time in Russia that the country’s retreat from democracy is most obvious. Since the 1990s, the pattern has been the same: opposition voices are reduced to a whimper, media coverage largely favours the incumbent and the President openly refuses to debate his political opponents. Last year’s parliamentary elections were no exception. [...]

Lukasz Swiatek asks whether the phenomenon of Public Journalism can reinvigorate the media’s role in maintaining robust representative government.

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“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.” John Milton’s famous defence became a seminal foundation for the freedom of speech, and, by extension, the freedom of the press. The media have long been acknowledged as crucial to the processes of representative democracy and to the lubrication of open, civil society. [...]

Kate Sullivan challenges the benefits of democracy for China.

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Democracy is the purported acme of governance. Democracy is hailed as the path to development and is used synonymously with equally vague but highly praised concepts like ‘freedom’ and ‘representation’. The Western media seems convinced that China should, and will, adopt a democratic system of government. Moreover, democracy is not the only way to attain development, nor is it necessarily more representative than authoritarian systems. [...]

Daniel Liu traces the evolution of the e-democracy movement.

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Representative democracy, a hallmark of the modern Western state, offers an efficient method of exercising popular sovereignty by conferring political power upon a few elected representatives. However, the advent of new information communication technologies in the 1990s raises the question of whether the internet can transform how the social contract between states and citizens functions. Can the internet provide an avenue for citizens to contribute more directly to policy decisions and governance? [...]

Catherine Tayeh explores the relationship between consumption and democracy.

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I ♥ democracy… and whales… and the Obama revolution. We should all buy free range eggs because I ♥ chicken welfare. We should be like Scandinavia and have cafes that sell hash brownies and fair trade chai because I ♥ African orphans. I also ♥ non-colonialist coffee, non-oppressive gelato and alcohol that isn’t tested on animals. You could argue that fashion has never been more political. But perhaps it is more accurate to say that politics has never been more fashion-conscious. [...]

Anshu De Silva Wijeyeratne examines democracy’s failure to win the hearts and minds of ASEAN members.

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The tragic events of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar provoked mixed emotions from the international community. The natural concern for the Burmese people was interspersed with anger at the ruling military junta’s steadfast resistanceto international assistance. This refusalundoubtedly exacerbated the suffering of Myanmar’s people. From the international community’s perspective, this was another example of how ASEAN diplomatic practice failed to achieve its goal of promoting meaningful political change in Myanmar. [...]