Stories

Hungary election
Hungary
The opposition understood the assignment.
The Hungarian 3-step plan to beat an authoritarian.  Autocrats around the world will study Orbán’s successes: how to consolidate power over time, how to reward loyalists, how to weaken watchdogs, and how to loot the state while...
Member Spotlight
Empowering Youth and Women for Elective Political Power in Nigeria
Following their earlier story, Children and Young People Living for Peace (CYPLP) returns with a second event contribution to the International Democracy Community. This September initiative marked International Democracy Day...
France
The 2019 Grand Débat National in France: A Participatory Experiment with...
Everyone remembers the Yellow Vests movement. Few remember the Grand Débat National. Yet, together they make...
France
Unlikely allies: how the ever-divided French Left and Right triggered a...
In April last year, civil demands to stop the privatization of one of France’s public ‘’crown jewels’’, the...
Rafael Pineiro, board member of Democracy International, leaves a polling station in Kansas during the 2014 US midterm elections, with several ballot measures.
Global
Long Life, Low Taxes and a Cleaner Environment: The Policy Effect of...
There has been no shortage of criticisms of direct democracy in general citizen-referendums in particular....
The European Pubic Sphere in Vienna
European Union
Behind citizen’s powerlessness: nostalgia, resentment and hope
With our eyes now turning towards Brussels and the upcoming launch of the Conference on the Future of Europe...
The ruins of the Panguna mine (Photo courtesy of Madlemurs (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/)
Papua New Guinea
Inching towards Independence: a bumpy road ahead for Bougainville
In last November’s referendum, with a turnout of 87,4 per cent, a staggering 97,7 per cent of Bougainvillean...
Global
A world caught between protest and ballot
Never before have so many people around the globe taken part in popular votes as in 2019. Yet never before...
Copyright: Diego Correa (CC BY 2.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Chile
Constitution building in Chile: a long way to go
Since October, Chile has seen tremendous social uprising across the country. What started as a protest about...
Spain
Spain: a national democratic deficit and local hope for better times
The Spanish Social-democratic Workers’ Party (PSOE) has won the national elections on Sunday November, 10 (...
Germany
"More democracy is possible"
Over the past months, our partner organisation Mehr Demokratie has organised citizens' councils on the...
Germany
30 years of Peaceful Revolution
30 years ago, citizen-led movements across Germany brought about a change that up until then had been...