by Toby S. James, Holly Ann Garnett, and Sofia Caal-Lam The Global Electoral Report 2025 has been published and raises concerns about the state of democracy around the world during 2024’s ‘Super Cycle’ of elections. Described by Time Magazine as the ‘Year of Elections’, 2024 saw 1.6 billion people head to the polls across 74…Read more Billions voted in 2024, but Electoral Integrity Project exposes cracks in global democracy
democracy
Electoral Reform: Democratic Principles and Global Practice
Election quality varies enormously around the world. Given concerns about global democratic backsliding, the issue of how to improve and protect election quality is a pressing policy problem. Passing reforms to improve the quality of elections, however, has often proved difficult to achieve. Incumbent governments may be reluctant to reform the rules which brought them…Read more Electoral Reform: Democratic Principles and Global Practice
Real democracy: a new approach to democracy and democratic theory
In an age of 'democratic backsliding' it is worth re-asking... 'what is democracy?.' This new piece in New Political Science draws from a tradition in British philosophy to propose an alternative to traditional minimalist and deliberative approaches to democratic thought. Realist (or real) democracy is present where preconditions exist to fully empower all citizens to…Read more Real democracy: a new approach to democracy and democratic theory
Half the world will vote in 2024, but how many elections will be fair?
This blog post with Holly Ann Garnett, was first published on The Conversation. This year has been widely proclaimed to be the year of elections, with national elections expected in at least 64 countries. This means that half of the world’s population will have the opportunity to change their government, choose their representatives and indirectly…Read more Half the world will vote in 2024, but how many elections will be fair?
Automatic voter registration is the key for better registers, new article shows
Voter registration reform is being discussed in many countries. What improves register quality? Holly Ann Garnett and I evaluate electoral register quality in 159 countries in a new research paper. We find that automatic voter registration ('AVR') improves *both* completeness and accuracy. This is significant because many contemporary debates suggest that there is often a…Read more Automatic voter registration is the key for better registers, new article shows
Toby S. James 