Democracy

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Iraq’s Parliament has failed its people. This was the message from protestors last week. But what could possibly replace the flawed system? Each potential solution comes with its own dangers. Protestors left Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone last week, after having spent two days expressing […]

Democracy

With more Women than Clerics, will Iran’s new Parliament improve Women’s Rights?

contributors

Leila Alikarami | (Open Democracy) | – – The problem was the Guardian Council, a body which has veto authority over any legislature, which in this case rejected all 33 bills introduced by women deputies. Parvaneh Salahshouri in the conference of elected moderates and reformists of Iran, March 2016. Wikicommons/ Hamed Malekpour. Some rights reserved.Seventeen […]

Arms Sales

Big Money in Politics Doesn’t Just Drive Inequality. It Drives War.

contributors

By Rebecca Green | ( Otherwords.org) | – – Military contractors have shelled out over $1 million to the 2016 presidential candidates — including over $200,000 to Hillary Clinton alone. The 2016 presidential elections are proving historic, and not just because of the surprising success of self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders, the lively debate among feminists […]

Bill of Rights

The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur ARRESTED At Democracy Spring Protest In Washington D.C.

contributors

Ben Mankiewicz, Ana Kasparian, and John Iadarola | (The Young Turks Video) | – – “The Democracy Spring rally was held today in Washington, D.C. to protest government corruption and money in politics. What began as a march from the Liberty Bell to the nation’s capitol ended in civil disobedience and mass arrests. Our own […]

Democracy

Do you have to be Affluent to be Democratic?

contributors

By Pippa Norris | (The Conversation) | – – Africans recently went to the polls in Benin, Cape Verde, the Republic of Congo, Niger and Zanzibar. The outcome was decidedly mixed. In Congo, riot police used tear gas in the capital to disperse dozens of opposition supporters who alleged vote irregularities. But incumbent President Denis […]

Democracy

Why Are there no Iranian Suicide Bombers? Evolving Islamic Democracy Matters!

contributors

By Ali R. Abootalebi | (Informed Comment) | – – The emergence of political Islam in the mainstream politics in the Middle East and across other Muslim countries since the 1970s has impacted socioeconomic and political development in so many different ways. The return of religion–a symbol of traditionalism–to the mainstream debate about and the […]

Campaign Finance

Why are American Elections so much worse than Everybody Else’s?

contributors

by Pippa Norris | (The Conversation) | – – The world is currently transfixed by the spectacle of American elections. From New York, London and Paris to Beijing, Moscow, and Sydney there is endless heated debate in the news media and across dinner tables about the factors fueling the remarkable success of Donald Trump, speculation […]

Democracy

Nine Takeaways From Iran’s Elections

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari | ( RFE/RL) | – – Iran's moderates and reformists have had nearly a week to celebrate their return from a decade of political marginalization in elections that recast the ranks of the parliament and the clerically dominated Assembly of Experts, which selects and oversees the supreme leader. But how much has […]

Democracy

Machiavelli: To combat Muslim Extremism, see Prophet Muhammad as bringer of a Constitution

contributors

Miguel Vatter | (The Conversation) | – – Everyone wants to die for Allah. We all want to live the best life in the hereafter and we want to make it to the top of the seven levels of Jannah – heaven. So thinks a young “anonymous Islamic State supporter” who was friends with the […]