Stories

The United Nations
A call to democratic imagination: why we need Global Citizens’ Assemblies
The world is at a turning point. As crises mount — from climate breakdown to technological disruption and growing authoritarianism — our systems of global governance are not stepping up to the task. We are trying to solve 21st-...
Myanmar (Burma)
Abusing a Disaster
The Myanmar junta builds power with ruins. Citizens are not only ignored in the aftermath of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake of March 28 2025, but instead abused in their vulnerability, as the junta lunges for more ground among the...
Eilat's sister cities, photo by Banja-Frans Mulder via Wikimedia CC BY 3.0
CORDÓBA Argentina
NEWSLETTER: Can Your City's Twin Save You? Militant Democracy,...
What's worth reading, watching and attending as May turns to June.
TIJUANA
COLUMN Call it the River Trump
The Endangered, Border-Crossing Tijuana River Needs Transnational Attention. A New Name Would Help.
BARCELONA
EVENT VIDEO Deliberative Democracy's Future in a Digital Age
A Carnegie Event Looks at Why Digital Deliberation Grows in Some Places, Not Others
MONTEVIDEO
APPRECIATION My Afternoon With Mujica
Uruguay's modest revolutionary and president has died
RIVERSIDE
COLUMN The COG in Local Government's Future
A finalist for the "All-America City" award isn't a city at all. It's a council of many governments.
JALAUR RIVER
ASIA DEMOCRACY CHRONICLES Dams, Disputed Lands, Contested Rights
Indigenous People in the Philippines Battle Over Control of Their Lands
Vörå (Finland)
Letter From Vörå: The Song and Sauna of Local Democracy
A song from Finland's Swedish-speaking and oft-divided region goes to the Eurovision contest
EDITORIAL
The World's Greatest Comeback
Europe is now the leader of the free world.
photo via NCL
UNITED STATES
NATIONAL CIVIC LEAGUE Creating a Democracy Where People Are Heard
In Democratic Practice, It's Time to Go on Offense
Image of two people holding an EU flag
European Union
Enlargement Is the EU’s Strategic Compass. Here’s How to Use It Now.
There’s no easy way to say this: if the EU continues to stall on enlargement, it risks falling geopolitically...