Informing and engaging citizens
The post-fact world: six steps you can take to fight back
How did we come to be living in a ‘post-fact’ world? Who or what is responsible for the breakdown in trust in fact-generating institutions? Crucially, what can we do about it? In this edited extract from a lecture delivered at several US universities, Mary Poovey, author of A History of the Modern Fact and of […]
The ‘academy revolution’ is ousting governors. We need to hold these schools accountable
As more and more schools are removed from local authority control and become academies, the role of governors has diminished – and with it a school’s accountability to local people, argues Andy Allen. Contrary to the aim of the ‘school revolution’, multi-academy trusts are not autonomous at all, but answerable to a few unelected trustees. He […]
Book review | Transparency and the Open Society, by Roger Taylor and Tim Kelsey
In Transparency and the Open Society: Practical Lessons for Effective Policy, Roger Taylor and Tim Kelsey offers a systematic framework for establishing greater transparency across government, and civil society more broadly. While the book does raise a number of further questions about the capacity to engender a more transparent society, Andrew Reid recommends it to those […]
What to read in the age of Trump
We need to think about democracy – now more than ever. As Donald Trump becomes the 45th President of the United States, Democratic Audit asked Brian Klaas, Russell Dalton, Cas Mudde and Meg Russell what texts they are turning to in order to understand and learn from the Trump phenomenon. This post is a work in progress […]
Multiculturalism is unpopular with the majority – even though it makes for happier societies
How do people feel about multicultural policies? Ethnic majorities tend to resent them, and feel less safe in societies with a number of affirmative and rights-based policies, write Pamela Irving Jackson and Peter Doerschler. As a result, governments have come under pressure to ensure policies that tackle inequality benefit everyone. Yet both ethnic majorities and minorities declare […]
If your parents didn’t vote, chances are you won’t either – unless you move up the social ladder
You are less likely to vote if your parents didn’t go to the polls. But new research by Hannu Lahtinen, Heikki Hiilamo and Hanna Wass suggest this effect is at least partly overcome if you move up the social ladder yourself. The more social mobility a society can achieve, the smaller the gaps in turnout between […]
So-called ‘populist’ parties have many different grievances. Lumping them together won’t help defeat them
Populism is the buzzword of the moment. But, Takis Pappas explains, there are three kinds of parties aggregated under the populist label: anti-democrats, nativists and ‘pure’ populists. Lumping them together is both misleading and politically perilous because they do not spring from the same source or the same set of grievances. Instead of lamenting a generic, ill-defined populism, we need […]
Pick of 2016: the best of Democratic Audit
2016 was an extraordinary year. With Donald Trump’s presidency less than three weeks away, Article 50 due to be invoked in March, local and mayoral elections in the UK and ground-shifting votes in Europe, 2017 promises more seismic change. Here’s a selection of some of Democratic Audit’s most thought-provoking pieces from 2016. Similar Posts
Trump portrayed ‘identity politics’ as a form of corruption
Donald Trump attacked the US government and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign as a ‘swamp’ of corruption and vested interests. But corruption in the commonly-understood sense of bribery is relatively rare in the United States. Instead, Bo Rothstein says, Trump was able to persuade white, working-class voters that Democrat ‘identity politics’ was a form of corruption that disadvantaged them. […]
Fat-shaming: Change4Life’s anti-obesity ‘nudge’ campaign glosses over social inequalities
The Change4Life campaign draws on ‘nudge’ theory to encourage families to ‘make better choices’ about their diet and exercise. But, argues Jane Mulderrig, behavioural economics is a poor substitute for radical state intervention that would address the root causes of obesity – such as poverty, the availability of cheap junk food and inadequate public transport. […]
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